"fence sitter" meaning in English

See fence sitter in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: fence sitters [plural]
Etymology: From fence + sitter, from the verb sit on the fence. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|fence|sitter}} fence + sitter Head templates: {{en-noun}} fence sitter (plural fence sitters)
  1. One who takes neither side of an argument or controversy, but maintains a neutral position. Translations (one maintaining neutral position): 牆頭草 /墙头草 (qiángtóucǎo) (Chinese Mandarin), neŭtralisto (Esperanto), attendista [feminine, masculine] (Italian), 회색분자 (hoesaekbunja) (Korean), "em cima do muro" (Portuguese), наблюдатель (nabljudatelʹ) [masculine] (Russian), "моя хата с краю" (moja xata s kraju) [idiomatic] (Russian), (passiv) åskådare [common-gender] (Swedish)
    Sense id: en-fence_sitter-en-noun-aQldwOX- Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Esperanto translations, Terms with Italian translations, Terms with Russian translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 52 48 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 48 52 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 47 53 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 47 53 Disambiguation of Terms with Esperanto translations: 46 54 Disambiguation of Terms with Italian translations: 46 54 Disambiguation of Terms with Russian translations: 46 54 Disambiguation of 'one maintaining neutral position': 77 23
  2. (potentially offensive) One who is bisexual, or who is uncertain about their sexual orientation. Categories (topical): LGBTQ, People Synonyms: bisexual person Related terms: draadsitter, fence-sitting, on the fence
    Sense id: en-fence_sitter-en-noun-NDeM8v~B Disambiguation of LGBTQ: 9 91 Disambiguation of People: 24 76 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with Esperanto translations, Terms with Italian translations, Terms with Korean translations, Terms with Mandarin translations, Terms with Portuguese translations, Terms with Russian translations, Terms with Swedish translations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 52 48 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 48 52 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 47 53 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 47 53 Disambiguation of Terms with Esperanto translations: 46 54 Disambiguation of Terms with Italian translations: 46 54 Disambiguation of Terms with Korean translations: 41 59 Disambiguation of Terms with Mandarin translations: 40 60 Disambiguation of Terms with Portuguese translations: 42 58 Disambiguation of Terms with Russian translations: 46 54 Disambiguation of Terms with Swedish translations: 40 60

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

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  "etymology_templates": [
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      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "fence",
        "3": "sitter"
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "From fence + sitter, from the verb sit on the fence.",
  "forms": [
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      "tags": [
        "plural"
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          "_dis": "52 48",
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        "One who takes neither side of an argument or controversy, but maintains a neutral position."
      ],
      "id": "en-fence_sitter-en-noun-aQldwOX-",
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      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "77 23",
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "qiángtóucǎo",
          "sense": "one maintaining neutral position",
          "word": "牆頭草 /墙头草"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "77 23",
          "code": "eo",
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          "sense": "one maintaining neutral position",
          "word": "neŭtralisto"
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          "_dis1": "77 23",
          "code": "it",
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          "sense": "one maintaining neutral position",
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          "word": "attendista"
        },
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          "_dis1": "77 23",
          "code": "ko",
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          "roman": "hoesaekbunja",
          "sense": "one maintaining neutral position",
          "word": "회색분자"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "77 23",
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "one maintaining neutral position",
          "word": "\"em cima do muro\""
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "77 23",
          "code": "ru",
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          "roman": "nabljudatelʹ",
          "sense": "one maintaining neutral position",
          "tags": [
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          ],
          "word": "наблюдатель"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "77 23",
          "code": "ru",
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          "roman": "moja xata s kraju",
          "sense": "one maintaining neutral position",
          "tags": [
            "idiomatic"
          ],
          "word": "\"моя хата с краю\""
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "77 23",
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "one maintaining neutral position",
          "tags": [
            "common-gender"
          ],
          "word": "(passiv) åskådare"
        }
      ]
    },
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          "_dis": "48 52",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2007, Adrian Tomine, Shortcomings (graphic novel), page 65",
          "text": "What...? EW. You scored with the fence-sitter?"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "One who is bisexual, or who is uncertain about their sexual orientation."
      ],
      "id": "en-fence_sitter-en-noun-NDeM8v~B",
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        "(potentially offensive) One who is bisexual, or who is uncertain about their sexual orientation."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "36 64",
          "word": "draadsitter"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "36 64",
          "word": "fence-sitting"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "36 64",
          "word": "on the fence"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "bisexual person"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "fence sitter"
}
{
  "categories": [
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    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
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    "Terms with Italian translations",
    "Terms with Korean translations",
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  "etymology_templates": [
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    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From fence + sitter, from the verb sit on the fence.",
  "forms": [
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      "tags": [
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  ],
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    {
      "word": "fence-sitting"
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      "word": "on the fence"
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      ],
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          "ref": "2007, Adrian Tomine, Shortcomings (graphic novel), page 65",
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        }
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      ],
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        "(potentially offensive) One who is bisexual, or who is uncertain about their sexual orientation."
      ],
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  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "qiángtóucǎo",
      "sense": "one maintaining neutral position",
      "word": "牆頭草 /墙头草"
    },
    {
      "code": "eo",
      "lang": "Esperanto",
      "sense": "one maintaining neutral position",
      "word": "neŭtralisto"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "one maintaining neutral position",
      "tags": [
        "feminine",
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "attendista"
    },
    {
      "code": "ko",
      "lang": "Korean",
      "roman": "hoesaekbunja",
      "sense": "one maintaining neutral position",
      "word": "회색분자"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "one maintaining neutral position",
      "word": "\"em cima do muro\""
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "nabljudatelʹ",
      "sense": "one maintaining neutral position",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "наблюдатель"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "moja xata s kraju",
      "sense": "one maintaining neutral position",
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ],
      "word": "\"моя хата с краю\""
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "one maintaining neutral position",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "(passiv) åskådare"
    }
  ],
  "word": "fence sitter"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-18 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (e4a2c88 and 4230888). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.