# defence

Pronunciation: say "di-FENS" /dɪˈfɛns/

## Noun

1. The act of keeping someone or something safe from attack, danger or injury.
   - Simple: Protecting someone or something from attack, danger or harm.
   - _The townspeople took up arms in defence of their homes._
   - _Coastal forts were built for the defence of the harbour against raids from the sea._
2. Government policy, organisations and facilities concerned with a country's armed forces.
   - Simple: The plans and systems a government has for its army, navy and air force.
   - _Defence and foreign policy dominated the final week of the election campaign._
   - _The government has promised to raise defence spending over the next five years._
3. Anything that is used to resist an attack or to keep it from succeeding.
   - Simple: Something you use to stop or fight back against an attack.
   - _The town's medieval defences still stand on the hill above the river._
   - _Vaccination remains the first line of defence against the disease._
4. The players in a team whose main job is to stop the other side from scoring, as distinct from its attackers.
   - Simple: The players in a team who try to stop the other team from scoring.
   - _City's defence looked shaky whenever the visitors ran at them down the wings._
   - _The manager has signed two new centre-backs to strengthen a leaky defence._
5. An argument offered to support something or to show that it is justified.
   - Simple: Reasons you give to support something or to show it was right.
   - _In the manager's defence, his team was missing four key players through injury._
   - _She wrote a passionate defence of public libraries for the local paper._
6. One side in a trial: the legal team acting for the accused, sometimes counted together with the accused person.
   - Simple: In a trial, the lawyers who speak for the person accused, and sometimes that person too.
   - _The defence called three witnesses before the judge adjourned for lunch._
   - _Counsel for the defence told the jury that the police had arrested the wrong man._
7. The case put to a court in answer to a criminal charge or a civil claim, made by the accused or the person being sued, or by their lawyers.
   - Simple: The reasons and facts a person, or their lawyer, gives in court to answer the claims made against them.
   - _Her defence was that she had been in Leeds on the night of the burglary, and two witnesses backed her up._
   - _The company has until the end of the month to file its defence to the claim for unpaid fees._

## Other meanings

- (noun) The act of forbidding something, or an official order that forbids it.
- (verb) To equip something with defences, making it strong enough to resist attack.

## Origin

The word reached English through Old French defens or defense, which goes back to Late Latin dēfēnsa, meaning “protection”. Middle English spelt it defens or defense, and it took the place of the Old English word bewering.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/defence (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).