From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishfence somebody/something ↔ in phrasal verb1 TBCto surround a place with a fence The yard was fenced in to keep out wolves.2 ESCAPEto make someone feel that they cannot leave a place or do what they want Young mothers often feel fenced in at home. → fence→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
fence in• One man, wearing a red cap and with a knife in his mouth, was already on top of the fence.• The entire complex is surrounded by 10-foot - high chain-link fencing.• Why did the mind and the heart have to be such antagonists, the one trying to fence the other in?• The chain-link fence swerved in, and this time I hit the brakes hard.• Her father left things with her for mending, like a sheep leaves its wool on a fence, in passing.• There was a lovely picture of him on telly last night peering woefully over the fence dressed in snazzy suit.• The rink would not be fenced off in the families-only section and would be open for use by adults.• A lime-green chameleon, stretching from fence to shrub in torpid motion, beguiled us. 