defend
Formsdefends, defending, defended
- 1To fight to protect someone or something from attack; to guard against harm.
The troops fought hard to defend the bridge throughout the night.
Knights were expected to defend their lord's lands at all costs.
Similarprotect, guard, shield, safeguard, hold
Note
The core sense, reached through Old French from Latin dēfendō, "to ward off." It displaced the native Old English bewerian. Its object is whatever is being protected, such as a bridge, a city or a person, and the threat follows with against: defend the town against raiders. The obsolete "repel" sense kept the Latin shape, with the attack itself as the object.
- 2
- 3To act as legal counsel for an accused person, arguing their case in court.
The firm agreed to defend the accused without charge.
An experienced attorney defended the company against the fraud allegations.
Similarrepresent
Oppositeprosecute
Note
Courtroom usage, with the accused as the object: counsel defends a client against a charge. Trial reports often let the present participle stand alone after a lawyer's name, as in "Philip Miles, defending, said…", where the client is understood and no object is needed. The sense is a specialized branch of the "argue in favor" meaning, narrowed to formal representation in court.
- 4To concentrate one's effort on stopping opponents from scoring rather than on scoring oneself.
When their lead grew, the players chose to defend rather than push forward.
She defends tirelessly, tracking back to break up every attack.
Oppositeattack
Note
A team-sport usage that usually needs no object: a side simply defends, the way it attacks. The contrast is the whole point. A team sitting on a lead chooses to defend instead of pressing forward, and a player praised for defending is valued for breaking up the other side's play rather than for scoring.
- 5To attempt to retain a title or to reach the same stage in a competition as in the previous edition.
The reigning winner returns to defend her crown against younger rivals.
He defended the heavyweight belt successfully in front of a home crowd.
Note
Here the object is a title rather than ground: a champion defends a crown, a belt or a championship. The present participle has become a label, so the defending champion is the one who won last time. The sense also stretches to anyone returning to match a previous result. A team that reached the final can be said to defend that run without ever having won.
- 6In cricket, to play a shot without force, blocking the ball to conserve energy and wear down the bowlers.
On a tricky pitch, the opener was content to defend ball after ball.
She defended the rising delivery softly down to the ground.
Similarblock
Note
Cricket gives the word a narrower batting meaning, used mostly of Test matches. Defending here is a single stroke as much as a strategy: the batter blocks the ball without force, saving energy and tiring the bowlers so that runs can come later. It is tactical restraint, not the outright refusal to score that the general team-sport sense suggests.
- 7In poker, to call a raise while sitting in the big blind position.
With decent odds, most players will defend against a small raise.
He defended his big blind and went on to win the pot.
Oppositefold
Note
Card-table slang built on the idea of protecting money already committed. The big blind is a forced bet, and to defend it is to call a raise instead of folding and giving up that stake. Players speak of defending their blind or defending against a raise. The word belongs to casual poker talk rather than formal rules.
Less common meanings
- 8To fight off or drive back an attack or an attacker.
Note
A lost use in which the attack itself is the object: you defended a blow by keeping it off, much as one still fends off a blow today. In Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene (1590), neither steel nor stone can defend the stroke "from entrance." Modern readers expect the object to be the thing protected, so lines like his need a second reading.
- 9To prevent someone or something, or to keep them from doing something.
Note
An obsolete meaning of keeping something from happening, long replaced in modern English by prevent and keep from. It is worth recognizing because it can mislead. In older prose, "defend merchants from cheating" means stopping the merchants from cheating, not shielding them from being cheated. Avoid it in current writing, where only the protective reading survives.
- 10To prohibit or forbid; to rule that something must not be done.
Broder said sir launcelot wete ye wel I am ful lothe to departe oute of this realme but the quene hath defended me soo hyhely that me semeth she wille neuer be my good lady as she hath ben
1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “ij”Note
An old prohibitive meaning that reverses what a modern reader expects. In Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur (1485), Lancelot says the queen "hath defended me soo hyhely," meaning she has forbidden him, not protected him. The sense was once common in legal and ecclesiastical language. Today it matters only for reading older texts, since current English never uses defend to mean forbid.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English defenden, from Old French defendre, from Latin dēfendō ("to ward off"), which traces back through Proto-Italic to the Proto-Indo-European root *gʷʰen-. It displaced the native Old English word bewerian.