defend

Pronunciation: /dɪˈfɛnd/

The English word “defend” has 11 meanings listed here.

verb

To ward off attacks against (something or someone).
To ward off attacks from (something or someone).
To support by words or writing; to vindicate, talk in favour of.
To make legal defence of; to represent (the accused).
To focus one's energies and talents on preventing opponents from scoring, as opposed to focusing on scoring.
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.
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.
To call a raise from the big blind.
To ward off, repel (an attack or attacker).
To prevent, to keep (from doing something).
To prohibit, forbid.

Etymology

From Middle English defenden, from Old French defendre, deffendre (Modern French défendre), from Latin dēfendō (“to ward off”), from Proto-Italic *fendō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰen-. Displaced native Old English bewerian.

Keep exploring: in the interactive dictionary every word of a definition is a link. Open “defend” there

More English words

About this dictionary

The English dictionary on Glottosphere has 650,529 entries with a page. Browse the English dictionary.

Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.