Browse phrases beginning with: [A][B][C][D][E][F][G][H][I][J][K][L][M][N][O][P][Q][R][S][T][U,V][W][X,Y,Z] Ring-fencingMeaning Separating something from usual judgement and guaranteeing its protection, especially the funds of a project. Origin This term has been in use since the 1980s to denote the funds that are set aside for a project and cannot be spent on anything else. Before that it had a more general meaning, of anything that was protected. For example, this comment from Roger Eliot Fry, in his Letters, from January 1903:
These figurative uses all of course derive from the literal 'ring-fences' which were used to confine stock on farms. |