defending

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of defend.

   Defending the coastline became the navy's top priority during the war.

   The lawyer is defending a client accused of fraud.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every use of defend, from the battlefield to the courtroom to the playing field. Sport gives it two habits of its own. In test cricket, a batter who is defending blocks rather than scores, saving energy to wear the bowlers down. A defending champion is the holder trying to keep the title. As a gerund it stays uncountable (defending the coastline), while the countable noun can take a plural.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   An act of defense; the protecting of someone or something against attack or harm.

   The army's defending of the mountain pass became legendary.

   Critics praised her steady defending against every accusation thrown at her.

   Similardefense, protection

   Oppositeattack

   Note

   Here an act of defense becomes something you can count, so the word takes a plural, defendings. The London Quarterly Review of 1857 speaks of "his wondrous laudations and defendings of the unfriended Turner." There the defending is done in words, set beside praise. The noun follows defend into argument as readily as into arms. In the plural it sits most naturally beside other countable acts, such as praises, attacks and laudations.

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