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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

fend.

To take care of oneself; to take responsibility for one's own well-being.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈfɛnd/[ˈfɛnd]/ˈfɪnd/[ˈfɪ̟nd]
  1. To take care of oneself; to take responsibility for one's own well-being.

    intransitive
  2. To defend, to take care of (typically construed with for); to block or push away (typically construed with off).

    rare
Where this word comes from

From Middle English fenden (“defend, fight, prevent”), shortening of defenden (“defend”), from Old French deffendre (Modern French défendre), from Latin dēfendō (“to ward off”), from dē- + *fendō (“hit, thrust”), from Proto-Italic *fendō, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰen- (“strike, kill”).

noun/ˈfɛnd/[ˈfɛnd]/ˈfɪnd/[ˈfɪ̟nd]
  1. Self-support; taking care of one's own well-being.

    obsolete · uncountable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English fenden (“defend, fight, prevent”), shortening of defenden (“defend”), from Old French deffendre (Modern French défendre), from Latin dēfendō (“to ward off”), from dē- + *fendō (“hit, thrust”), from Proto-Italic *fendō, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰen- (“strike, kill”).

noun/ˈfɛnd/[ˈfɛnd]/ˈfɪnd/[ˈfɪ̟nd]
  1. An enemy; fiend; the Devil.

    UK · dialectal
Where this word comes from

From Middle English fēnd, feond, from Old English fēond (“adversary, foe, enemy, fiend, devil, Satan”), from Proto-Germanic *fijandz, present participle of *fijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *peh₁- (“to hate”). More at fiend.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.