Picket fence

Picket fence

A picket fence is a variety of fence that has been used mostly for domestic boundaries. It is particularly popular in the United States, where the style has been used since the First Period, and remains popular in current times. Often the fence is painted white (or whitewashed) and made of wood, although modern versions may use plastic that resembles wood. The style is characterized as short with a tapered or pointed top on evenly spaced vertical boards, called pickets.

The fence can be assembled from prefabricated sections, where the posts of each section are posted into the ground but the pickets or boards that make up the fence wall are not inserted into the ground.

A picket fence, ideally white, is seen by some as a symbol of the ideal middle-class suburban life, with a family, children, large house and peaceful living. This stems from the fact that houses in quiet, middle-class neighborhoods often have a picket fence around the garden. [ [http://www.landscapingideasonline.com/white-picket-fence.php White Picket Fences] ] In recent years, some people have associated picket fences with what they regard as the more negative aspects of this lifestyle. For example, the director David Lynch uses ironic images of the picket fence in his 1986 film "Blue Velvet".Fact|date=April 2008

In popular culture

The words "picket fence" have been known to be applied to describe text where there are unnoticeable or no spaces between the words. Such texts are extremely common in old Latin, where there are no usage of spaces nor punctuation. [Latin for Dummies]

See also

*Temporary fencing

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • Picket fence — Picket Pick et, n. [F. piquet, properly dim. of pique spear, pike. See {Pike}, and cf. {Piquet}.] 1. A stake sharpened or pointed, especially one used in fortification and encampments, to mark bounds and angles; or one used for tethering horses.… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • picket fence — picket ,fence noun count a fence made of thin flat boards that are pointed at the top. People think of picket fences as typical of houses in small middle class towns in the U.S …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • picket fence — picket fences N COUNT A picket fence is a fence made of pointed wooden sticks fixed into the ground, with pieces of wood nailed across them …   English dictionary

  • picket fence — picket .fence n AmE a fence made up of a line of strong pointed sticks that are fixed in the ground …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • picket fence — ☆ picket fence n. a fence made of upright pales or stakes …   English World dictionary

  • picket fence — UK / US noun [countable] Word forms picket fence : singular picket fence plural picket fences a fence made of thin flat boards that are pointed at the top. People think of picket fences as typical of houses in small middle class towns in the US …   English dictionary

  • picket fence — noun 1》 a wooden fence made of spaced uprights connected by two or more horizontal rails. 2》 [often as modifier] N. Amer. a picket fence as a symbol of middle class domesticity and contentment …   English new terms dictionary

  • picket fence — noun a fence made of upright pickets • Syn: ↑paling • Hypernyms: ↑fence, ↑fencing • Part Meronyms: ↑picket, ↑pale …   Useful english dictionary

  • picket fence — a fence consisting of pickets or pales nailed to horizontal stringers between upright posts. Also called paling, paling fence. [1790 1800, Amer.] * * * …   Universalium

  • picket fence — pick′et fence′ n. cvb bui a fence consisting of pickets nailed to horizontal stringers between upright posts • Etymology: 1790–1800, amer …   From formal English to slang

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