defense
pronunciation
How to pronounce defense in British English:
UK [dɪ'fens]
How to pronounce defense in American English:
US [dɪ'fens]
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- Noun:
- (sports) the team that is trying to prevent the other team from scoring
- military action or resources protecting a country against potential enemies
- the defendant and his legal advisors collectively
- protection from harm
- a structure used for defense
- the speech act of answering an attack on your assertions
- the justification for some act or belief
- a defendant's answer or plea denying the truth of the charges against him
- an organization of defenders that provides resistance against attack
- (psychiatry) an unconscious process that tries to reduce the anxiety associated with instinctive desires
Word Origin
- defense (n.)
- c. 1300, "forbidding, prohibition," also "action of guarding or protecting," from Old French defense, from Latin defensus, past participle of defendere "ward off, protect" (see defend). But it also arrived (without the final -e) from Old French defens, from Latin defensum "thing protected or forbidden," neuter past participle of defendere. Defens was assimilated into defense, but not before it inspired the alternative spelling defence, via the same tendency that produced hence (hennis), pence (penies), dunce (Duns). First used 1935 as a euphemism for "national military resources." Defense mechanism in psychology is from 1913.
Synonym
Example
- 1. Second , it requires a sensible defense strategy .
- 2. They were joined by a military defense lawyer .
- 3. In japan , the defense minister eulogized him .
- 4. This team relies on strong defense and a quick counterattack .
- 5. Mr. seyoum warned that ethiopian forces would not stay long in somalia sacrificing themselves in defense of the government .