Fend
noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 Self-support; taking care of one's own well-being. obsolete, uncountable
- 2 An enemy; fiend; the Devil. UK, dialectal
- 1 To take care of oneself; to take responsibility for one's own well-being. intransitive
"1990, Messrs Howley and Murphy, quoted in U.S. House Subcommittee on Labor Standards, Oversight hearing on the Federal Service Contract Act, U.S. Government Printing Office, page 40, Mr. Howley. They are telling him how much they will increase the reimbursement for the total labor cost. The contractor is left to fend as he can. Chairman Murphy. Obviously, he can’t fend for any more than the money he has coming in."
- 2 withstand the force of something wordnet
- 3 To defend, to take care of (typically construed with for); to block or push away (typically construed with off). rare
"With fern beneath to fend the bitter cold."
- 4 try to manage without help wordnet
Example
More examples"In the past, the boys were taught to fend for themselves while still very young."
Etymology
From Middle English fenden (“defend, fight, prevent”), shortening of defenden (“defend”), from Old French deffendre (Modern French défendre), from Latin dēfendō (“to ward off”), from dē- + *fendō (“hit, thrust”), from Proto-Italic *fendō, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰen- (“strike, kill”).
From Middle English fēnd, feond, from Old English fēond (“adversary, foe, enemy, fiend, devil, Satan”), from Proto-Germanic *fijandz, present participle of *fijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *peh₁- (“to hate”). More at fiend.
Related phrases
More for "fend"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.