Emily Dickinson Lexicon

FORE-FEND', v.t.

1. To hinder; to fend off; to avert; to prevent approach; to forbid or prohibit. Dryden.
2. To defend; to guard; to secure. Shak. This word, like the L. arceo, is applied to the thing assailing, and to the thing assailed. To drive back or resist that which assails, is to hinder its approach, to forbid or avert, and this act defends the thing threatened or assailed.