Meaning & use
mend fences
Last updated
Meaning
phraseidiomfigurative
To repair a damaged relationship by apologizing or making an effort to restore goodwill after a disagreement.
Grammar: Fences is always plural, and with introduces the other person: mend fences with a neighbor.
Patterns
- mend fences with someone
- try to mend fences
After the argument, he called his old partner to mend fences.
The senator traveled home to mend fences with angry voters.
She tried to mend fences with her sister before the holidays.
Word forms
| third person singular | mends fences |
|---|---|
| past tense | mended fences |
| past participle | mended fences |
| -ing form | mending fences |
Common combinations
- try to mend fences
- The company tried to mend fences after the scandal.
- mend fences with
- He needs to mend fences with his team.
- time to mend fences
- It was time to mend fences with the neighbors.
- help mend fences
- The visit helped mend fences between the countries.
Synonyms and how they differ
- reconcile
- Reconcile is formal and can describe two sides coming back together, while mend fences is informal and often one-sided effort.
- patch things up
- Patch things up is more casual and used for small quarrels between friends.
- make amends
- Make amends focuses on making up for a wrong, while mend fences focuses on the damaged relationship.
- smooth things over
- Smooth things over suggests calming tension quickly rather than rebuilding trust.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: mend fences or sit on the fence?
mend fences vs sit on the fence
Sit on the fence means to avoid choosing a side, which has nothing to do with repairing a relationship.
Practice
The manager planned a lunch to ___ with the employees he upset.
Choose one answer.
Mend fences means to repair damaged relationships. Sit on the fence is a tempting fence idiom, but it means to stay neutral.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “mend fences”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.