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# fend

«fend» in Mova's school dictionary: **to look after yourself without help** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

verb (fend, fends, fended, fending); phrasal verbs fend for, fend off

### meaning for a pupil

1) To fend for yourself is to look after yourself without help. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/fend/#m1)

2) To fend off someone or something is to push it away or defend yourself against it. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/fend/#m2)

3) (rugby) A fend or hand-off is pushing away a tackler with your arm. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/fend/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

Everyday life and stories: young animals learning to fend for themselves, fending off an attack, fending off questions. Phrases: fend for yourself, fend off.

### examples

- Baby turtles must fend for themselves from the start. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/fend/#x1)
- When Mum was ill, we had to fend for ourselves at dinner time. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/fend/#x2)
- The knight fended off the dragon with his shield. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/fend/#x3)
- She fended off the reporters' questions. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/fend/#x4)
- The goalkeeper fended off a hard shot. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/fend/#x5)
- Fox cubs learn to fend for themselves by autumn. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/fend/#x6)
- The following morning, instead of one, three cows stood on the island, and they all ate seaweed and fended for themselves like the first one. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/fend/#x7)

### note

Almost always used as «fend for» or «fend off». Related: defend, fender (car bumper in the US; fireguard in the UK).

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «fend» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/F/fend/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.