white picket fence
4
3.2
- noun
- /waɪt ˈpɪkɪt fɛns/
- US
:
valla blanca
- The first thing is: DO NOT LIE and lead girls into thinking you want to marry them, have five kids, a Labrador, and a white picket fence.
- house with a white picket fence
- cottage with the white picket fence
- surrounded by a white picket fence
Examples
-
I wanted to get married, live in a house with a white picket fence, and have a baby.
-
The house in front of her is a modest bungalow with a white picket fence and sycamore trees lining the street.
-
Round the house and garden ran a white picket fence.
Fiction book (1993) -
This afforded it a long and flat green lawn running from the wide front porch to the white picket fence that ran along the street line.
Fiction book (2001) -
The lawn was completely surrounded by a white picket fence with an open gate; there was even an old-fashioned mailbox at the gate, with its flag up.
Fiction book (2001) -
It was a couple of acres of trimmed green lawn, bordered by the white picket fence that signaled the beginning of vacuum.
Fiction book (2001) -
My husband and I are building a white picket fence to go in front of our house.
Synonyms
23
2.0
A row of upright wooden or metal boards with spaces that mark the edge of a yard
Surface Forms
Morphology
At the concrete level the phrase is fully compositional — a B1 learner who knows 'white', 'picket', and 'fence' will understand it denotes a fence made of white pickets. However, the extended, culturally specific meaning as a symbol of the idealized suburban lifestyle (comfort, security, traditional family values) is a pragmatic/idiomatic extension that is not directly derivable from the parts and may require cultural knowledge or prior exposure.
Etymology
White picket fence comes from the small wooden fences people put around their houses; they were painted white and made of short pointed boards called pickets, which gave the picture of a neat yard and a safe home. So today white picket fence means 'an ideal, comfortable family life'.