- 1自己照顧自己（多作 fend for yourself）
The meaning you will hear most is “fend for yourself”: look after your own food, money, and safety, with nobody else taking care of you. A parent might say a child must learn to fend for themselves when they leave home. A small shop might have to fend for itself when a big company arrives. It is not slang, and it is not stiff office English either — it turns up in talk and in writing. You almost never say “fend” with nothing after it; it sounds unfinished. People also say “fend off” when you push something away or stop it reaching you — a question, an attack, even mosquitoes. That “push away” feeling is the older heart of the word. Though actually, fend was cut down from defend: it is defend with the front knocked off. So “fend for yourself” is a bit like defending your own life without a .
From the word’s history
Middle English fenden, a shortening of defenden, from Latin dēfendō 'to ward off'.
defend（防衛）的縮短，源自拉丁文 dēfendō「擋開」。
組成Not a compound. It is a shortening of defend. Middle English fenden came from defenden, from Old French deffendre (today’s French défendre), from Latin dēfendō, “to ward off”: dē- + a root meaning “hit, thrust”.
原始詞典資料4 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
fendverb詞源 1/ˈfɛnd/
- 1
To take care of oneself; to take responsibility for one's own well-being.
- 1990, Messrs Howley and Murphy, quoted in U.S. House Subcommittee on Labor Standards, Oversight hearing on the Federal Service Contract Act, U.S. Government Printing Office, page 40, Mr. Howley. They are telling him how much they will increase the reimbursement for the total labor cost. The contractor is left to fend as he can. Chairman Murphy. Obviously, he can’t fend for any more than the money he has coming in.
- The planet was full of creatures in need, who could not really fend, and the law was at its best when it ensured that they were treated with dignity.
- 2
rareTo defend, to take care of (typically construed with for); to block or push away (typically construed with off).
- With fern beneath to fend the bitter cold.
- He fends, he blocks, too skillful to be downed.
fendnoun詞源 1/ˈfɛnd/
- 1
obsoleteSelf-support; taking care of one's own well-being.
fendnoun詞源 2/ˈfɛnd/
- 1
dialectalAn enemy; fiend; the Devil.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。