Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Fend

Fend, n. A fiend. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Fend, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fended; p. pr. & vb. n. Fending.] [Abbrev. fr. defend.] To keep off; to prevent from entering or hitting; to ward off; to shut out; — often with off; as, to fend off blows.

With fern beneath to fend the bitter cold. Dryden.

To fend off a boat or vessel (Naut.), to prevent its running against anything with too much violence.

Fend, v. i. To act on the defensive, or in opposition; to resist; to parry; to shift off.

The dexterous management of terms, and being able to fend . . . with them, passes for a great part of learning. Locke.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.