Meaning of defend in English

defend

verb

/dɪˈfend/ us

/dɪˈfend/

defend verb (PROTECT)

B1 [ T ]

to protect someone or something against attack or criticism:

How can we defend our homeland if we don't have an army?

White blood cells help defend the body against infection.

They are fighting to defend their beliefs/interests/rights.

I'm going to karate lessons to learn how to defend myself.

The Bank of England intervened this morning to defend the pound (= stop it from losing value).

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attack verb (HURT)

[ T ]

to speak or write in support of someone or something:

He vigorously defended his point of view.

The president was asked how he could defend a policy that increased unemployment.

More examples

The general rallied his forces to defend the town.
Police officers used riot shields to defend themselves.
A female lion defends her young ferociously.
In the past, the party would have closed ranks around its leader and defended him loyally.
Should the church always defend traditional values, or be open to changing them?

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Defending and protecting

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Backing, supporting & defending

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defend verb (IN LAW)

[ T ]

to act as a lawyer for someone who has been accused of something in a court of law and try to prove that they are not guilty:

The lawyer defending the students asked the judge to dismiss the charges.

He has defended many famous clients.

Unusually, the accused opted to defend himself in court.

The company has spent a lot of money defending the case.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Court cases, orders & decisions

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defend verb (IN SPORT)

[ T ]

to compete in a sports competition that you won before and try to win it again:

He will defend his 1,500 metre title this weekend.

The defending champion will play her first match of the tournament tomorrow.

[ I ]

to try to prevent the opposing player or players from scoring points, goals, etc. in a sport:

In the last ten minutes of the game, we needed to defend.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Competing in sport

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

General terms used in ball sports

(Definition of defend from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

defend | American Dictionary

defend

verb

/dɪˈfend/

defend verb (PROTECT)

[ T ]

to protect someone or something from attack or harm:

Communities will fight to defend themselves.

How can people best defend themselves against disease?

[ T ]

To defend is also to argue in support of something, esp. when it has been criticized:

She defended her husband against the accusations.

defend verb (SPORTS)

[ I/T ]

(in sports) to try to prevent the opposition from scoring points in a competition, or to guard a goal or other position:

[ I ] Jones is a difficult player to defend against.

(Definition of defend from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

defend | Business English

defend

verb [ T ]

/dɪˈfend/ us

to protect someone or something against attack, criticism, or loss:

defend sth/yourself against sth The company has been defending itself against a takeover bid.

The unions accused the government of not doing enough to defend jobs.

defend your decision/actions

MONEY, ECONOMICS

to take action to stop a currency from losing value:

The Bank of England stepped in today to defend the pound.

LAW

to be the lawyer speaking for a person or organization in a court of law, or speaking about a particular case:

The accused CEO was defended by one of the country's leading lawyers.

The attorney general, whose office defended the case on behalf of the Department of Public Safety, said he anticipates an appeal.

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prosecute

LAW

if you defend a legal case against you, you arrange for it to be discussed in a court of law:

If you want to defend a claim against you, you have 30 days to file a Statement of Reply with the Tribunal.

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prosecute

(Definition of defend from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of defend

defend

Exploitive agents endowed with the ability to interact selectively succeed in defending against invasion because they induce a highly non-interactive world.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The normative component of our arguments defends the use of these constraints as consistent with, or even inherent in, deliberation.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

He defended his arguments with examples from the lives of legendary and historical heroines, with supporting citations from an array of ancient and modern writers.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Even if they can, the abilities of defending their sovereignties are not equal!

From the Cambridge English Corpus

As just noted, we defended a hypothesis and a mechanism underlying it.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In this way, for example, the plausibility of an argument could be defended by another argument in its subset.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The primacy thesis will be defended as a matter of the primacy of distributive over aggregative measures.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The point is that these practices cannot seriously be defended on grounds of popular sovereignty.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

He defends this thesis against several compelling objections.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

At the same time, both the press and the courts provided alternative strategies for defending reputations.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We accept, therefore, that we face an onus of proof in defending our definition - an onus that we cannot fully meet in this article.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The right to ask questions about community nursing practice as a discipline must be defended.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

She screams, defending herself, and the hidden counsellor shouts in panic.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

He was as aggressive as the poet when it came to defending territory.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Against what or whom do standards need to be defended ?

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all examples of defend

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Translations of defend

in Chinese (Traditional)

保護, 保護，防衛, 為…辯護…

Meaning of defend in English

defend verb (PROTECT)

defend verb (IN LAW)

defend verb (IN SPORT)

defend | American Dictionary

defend verb (PROTECT)

defend verb (SPORTS)

defend | Business English

Examples of defend

Translations of defend

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