Fence

subs. (common).—1.  A purchaser or receiver of stolen goods.—See verbal sense, and THIEVES.

  ENGLISH SYNONYMS.  Fencing master, or cully; billy-fencer; angling cove; stallsman; Ikey; family-man; father.

  FRENCH SYNONYMS.  Une crosse (thieves’); un carreur (thieves’); un attriqueur or une attriqueuse (thieves’); un franc de maison (also = landlord of a thieves’ lodging-house or ‘flash ken’); un fourgue, fourgat, or fourgasse (thieves’); une nourrice (a female fence; = nurse); un meunier (= a miller; porter au moulin = to fence the swag); un ogre (thieves’).

  GERMAN SYNONYMS.  Pascher or Verpascher (from paschlnisenen = to peddle illegally); Sarser, or Sasser (= a go-between); Tschorrgoi (gypsy).

  PORTUGUESE SYNONYM.  Entrujão.

  1714.  Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 3. The FENCE and he [a thief], are like the Devil and the Doctor, they live by one another.

  1748.  T. DYCHE, A New General English Dictionary (5 ed.). FENCE (S.) … and in the Canting Language, signifies one who receives and disposes of stolen goods for the robbers.

  1834.  W. H. AINSWORTH, Rookwood, p. 171 (ed. 1864). The FENCE and he are like the devil and the doctor, they live by one another; and, like traitors, ’tis best to keep each other’s counsel.

  1837.  DICKENS, Oliver Twist, p. 60. What are you up to? Ill-treating the boys, you … insatiable old FENCE.

  1851.  H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, vol. II., p. 106. In one of my inquiries among the young thieves and pickpockets in the low lodging-houses, I heard frequent accounts of their selling the metal goods they stole to FENCES, and in one particular instance to the mistress of a lodging house, who had conveniences for the melting of pewter pots (called ‘cats and kittens’ by the young thieves according to the size of the vessels).

  1883.  Daily Telegraph, 13 June, p. 7, col. 2. The criminal who, without the aid of the professional FENCE, would experience much difficulty in disposing of his booty.

  1885.  Indoor Paupers, p. 73. The articles bore the workhouse stamp, were much worn, and would not have brought the thief more than a couple of pence, even supposing that he could find a FENCE, who would venture to purchase.

  2.  A place where stolen goods are purchased or received. [From sense 1.] Also a DOLLY-, LEAVING-, or SWAG-SHOP—(q.v.); FENCING-CRIB. Fr., un moulin.

  1847.  Illustrated London News, 2 May. The keeper of the FENCE loves to set up in business there [Clerkenwell]—low public-houses abound, where thieves drink and smoke—Jew receivers work the corners.

  1848.  Punch, vol. xiv., p. 149. If Citizen Blanc hold to his opinions of 1839, we may expect no law of international copyright from the Republic. Let M. Galignani rejoice; and let his Bibliothèque in the Rue Vivienne still remain the greatest literary ‘FENCE’ in Europe.

  Verb (old).—1.  To purchase or receive stolen goods.

  1610.  ROWLANDS, Martin Mark-all, p. 38 [Hunterian Club’s Reprint, 1874]. TO FENCE property, to sell any thing that is stolen.

  1789.  G. PARKER, Life’s Painter, p. 153. FENCED. Is disposing of anything stolen for a quarter of the value.

  1828.  BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Living Picture of London, p. 312. Even though he be a thief himself, or more harmfully engaged in FENCING others’ thefts.

  1830.  BULWER-LYTTON, Paul Clifford, p. 298, ed. 1854. Vell, ven ve came out, you minds as on the voman had a bundle in her arms, and you spake to her, and she answered you roughly, and left us all and vent straight home; and ve vent and FENCED the swag that wery night, and afterwards napped the regulars.

  1885.  Chambers’s Journal, 21 Feb., p. 126. Moreover, he was strongly suspected of FENCING—that is, purchasing stolen property.

  3.  (common).—To spend money.

  1728.  BAILEY, Dictionarium Britannicum, s.v.

  TO BE, SIT, or RIDE ON THE FENCE, verb. phr. (American).—To be neutral; to be ready to join the winning side; to wait ‘to see how the cat will jump.’ Also, TO SIT ON BOTH SIDES OF THE HEDGE. [Cf., Latin prævaricato = straddling with distorted legs.]—See JUMPING CAT.

  1882.  J. R. LOWELL, The Biglow Papers, II., p. 97.

  1887.  Political Slang, in Cornhill Magazine, June, p. 626. Those who SIT ON THE FENCE—men with impartial minds, who wait to see, as another pretty phrase has it, ‘how the cat will jump.’

  1888.  Texas Siftings, 7 July. While Democratic papers will claim that Judge Thurman is as hearty and well at seventy-five as he was at fifty-five, journals ON THE other side of the FENCE will represent him to be a weak, feeble old man, much belter fitted for the invalid than the vice-presidential chair.

  Those who thus seek to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds are called FENCE-MEN. The operation is FENCE-RIDING, which sometimes qualifies for RAIL-RIDING (q.v.).

  1848.  New York Herald, 14 Oct. All the FENCE-MEN, all the doubters, all the seekers after majorities, will now bustle up, come out, and declare that General Taylor is the most popular man in the country, and that he was always their first choice.

  1868.  Congressional Globe, 17 July. This question is one of clear right and wrong, and there can be no FENCE-RIDING, when the rights of four millions of men are at stake.