- 1
To ward off attacks against; to fight to protect; to guard.; To ward off attacks against (something or someone).ditransitivetransitive
- Most Zionists hoped for a state of their own, but early in the 20th century, writers like Hillel Solotaroff and Chaim Zhitlowsky, both Yiddish-speaking immigrant intellectuals in New York, imagined another alternative: a federation of self-
- 2
To ward off attacks against; to fight to protect; to guard.; To ward off attacks from (something or someone).ditransitiveintransitive
- 3
To support by words or writing; to vindicate, talk in favour of.transitive
- Justice Elena Kagan on Thursday defended the code of conduct the Supreme Court created last year, but conceded there needs to be a way to enforce the rules for it to be more effective.
- 4
To make legal defence of; to represent (the accused).transitive
- Philip Miles, defending, said: "This was a single instance, there was no allegation of continuing behaviour over a long period of time."
- 5
To focus one's energies and talents on preventing opponents from scoring, as opposed to focusing on scoring.
- 6
Mostly in tests. The action of not putting force into hitting a shot, but to conserve energy and wear down bowlers so they can attack later.
- The teams strategy was to defend but score runs as well for the first 20 overs.
- 7
To attempt to retain a title, or attempt to reach the same stage in a competition as one did in the previous instance of that competition.
- 8
To call a raise from the big blind.slang
- 9
To ward off, repel (an attack or attacker).obsoletetransitive
- The vertue is, that neither steele, nor stone The stroke thereof from entrance may defend[…].
- 10
To prevent, to keep (from doing something).obsoletetransitive
syn. beshield · beward · brood · cape for · defend · fend · guard · preserve · protect · safeguard · secure · shelter
ant. attack