defenced

1. 1
   adjectivearchaic

   Equipped with defenses; protected against attack or other harm.

   The invaders besieged the kingdom's defenced cities one after another.

   Comparison of the condition to which the defenced city is to be reduced, to a wilderness.

   1854, “A Designation and Exposition of the Figures in Isaiah”, in The Theological and Literary Journal

   Note

   Bible language keeps this word alive, usually just before city: a defenced city is one made ready to hold out against attack. Seventeenth-century writers also applied it to people, with more and most, as when James Shirley's The Bird in a Cage (1633) seeks a place where a woman could be more defenced from all men's eyes. Outside scripture, defended is the everyday word.

2. 2
   verbobsoleteUK

   Simple past and past participle of defence.

   Note

   An obsolete British verb lies behind this form: to fortify a place, to furnish it with defenses. One spelling serves as simple past (they defenced the harbor) and as past participle after have or be (the harbor was defenced). It also doubles as the adjective meaning defended. For the verb itself, a modern writer reaches for fortified instead.

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