"on the fence" meaning in English

See on the fence in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=}} on the fence, {{en-PP}} on the fence
  1. Undecided; wavering in one's opinion. Translations (Translations): but see na dwoje babka wróżyła (Polish), stać pod znakiem zapytania (Polish)
    Sense id: en-on_the_fence-en-prep_phrase-sj2vlZTb Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 91 9 Disambiguation of 'Translations': 100 0
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see on, the, fence. Derived forms: sit on the fence
    Sense id: en-on_the_fence-en-prep_phrase-tLI3RtQB

Download JSON data for on the fence meaning in English (1.7kB)

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "on the fence",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "on the fence",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "91 9",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I am still on the fence about which way to vote.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017 May 22, Olga Khazan, “How People Decide Whether to Have Children”, in The Atlantic",
          "text": "The letter was from a 41-year-old man who was also on the fence about kids: “Things like quiet, free time, spontaneous travel, pockets of non-obligation,” he wrote. “I really value them.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Undecided; wavering in one's opinion."
      ],
      "id": "en-on_the_fence-en-prep_phrase-sj2vlZTb",
      "links": [
        [
          "Undecided",
          "undecided"
        ],
        [
          "waver",
          "waver"
        ],
        [
          "opinion",
          "opinion"
        ]
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "note": "no equivalent term in Polish",
          "sense": "Translations"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "but see na dwoje babka wróżyła"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "stać pod znakiem zapytania"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "derived": [
        {
          "_dis1": "6 94",
          "word": "sit on the fence"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see on, the, fence."
      ],
      "id": "en-on_the_fence-en-prep_phrase-tLI3RtQB",
      "links": [
        [
          "on",
          "on#English"
        ],
        [
          "the",
          "the#English"
        ],
        [
          "fence",
          "fence#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "on the fence"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English prepositional phrases",
    "Translation table header lacks gloss"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "sit on the fence"
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "prepositional phrase",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "on the fence",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "on the fence",
      "name": "en-PP"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "prep_phrase",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "I am still on the fence about which way to vote.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2017 May 22, Olga Khazan, “How People Decide Whether to Have Children”, in The Atlantic",
          "text": "The letter was from a 41-year-old man who was also on the fence about kids: “Things like quiet, free time, spontaneous travel, pockets of non-obligation,” he wrote. “I really value them.”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Undecided; wavering in one's opinion."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Undecided",
          "undecided"
        ],
        [
          "waver",
          "waver"
        ],
        [
          "opinion",
          "opinion"
        ]
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see on, the, fence."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "on",
          "on#English"
        ],
        [
          "the",
          "the#English"
        ],
        [
          "fence",
          "fence#English"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "note": "no equivalent term in Polish",
      "sense": "Translations"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "but see na dwoje babka wróżyła"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "stać pod znakiem zapytania"
    }
  ],
  "word": "on the fence"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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.