The Collaborative International Dictionary
Fend \Fend\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Fended; p. pr. & vb. n. Fending.] [Abbrev. fr. defend.] To keep off; to prevent from entering or hitting; to ward off; to shut out; -- often with off; as, to fend off blows.
With fern beneath to fend the bitter cold.
--Dryden.
To fend off a boat or To fend off a vessel (Naut.), to prevent its running against anything with too much violence.
Wiktionary
vb. (present participle of fend English)
Usage examples of "fending".
Old One snarled, fending off my attempt to insert reason into his thought process.
Barmaids scurried from table to table, balancing wooden steins on teetering trays, serving rowdy customers, fending passes, keeping up with the orders.
He thought she would likely be able to handle the thankless task of fending off his family.
Mountain curved horn-shaped about the great verdant bowl, fending the wind.
The hand not employed in feeding Annie was fending off Dennis the pig, who was showing an unseemly interest in sharing their meal.
No conjures, no come-hithers, no fendings, no wardings, none of that stuff.
Arrangements of living plants hanging on the porch, seeds with the life in them sitting in carefully placed jars, garlics, stains of berry juices, all so strongly placed that even with the likker in him to dull the black noise, Lolla-Wossiky could feel the pushing and pulling of the fendings and wardings and hexes.