Fencing is the sport of fighting with slim blunted swords. Take up fencing, a fencing club, an Olympic fencing final.
There are three weapons with three sets of rules: foil, épée and sabre, which differ in where you may hit and who has priority. Hits are registered electrically. It has been in every modern Olympic Games. Fencing is also the fences round a field, and the material they are made of — post and rail fencing. Note that in criminal slang fencing means dealing in stolen goods, which is unrelated.
1nounfencingThe sport of fighting with slim blunted swords.
“She wore a white suit and a mask for her first fencing lesson.”
2nounfencesFences, or the material for making them.
“The fencing along that boundary needs replacing.”
fencing is a sport, or a barrier.
Fencing comes from defence, cut short in Middle English — the art of defence. The fence round a field is the same word, meaning something that defends the boundary.
Middle English
fensing
English, today
fencing
From Middle English fensing, equivalent to fence + -ing.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA