# defense
## English
### Alternative forms

* defence (British)

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA: /dɪˈfɛns/
* Audio (US):(file)
* (sports): (US, often) IPA: /ˈdiːˌfɛns/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɛns
* Hyphenation: de‧fense

### Etymology 1

From Middle English defens, defense, from Old French defens, defense, from Late Latin dēfēnsa (“protection”). Displaced native Old English bewering. The verb is from the noun.

#### Noun

defense (countable and uncountable, plural defenses) (American spelling)
* The action of defending or protecting from attack, danger, or injury.
* Anything employed to oppose attack(s).
** (team sports) A strategy and tactics employed to prevent the other team from scoring; contrasted with offense.
** (team sports) The portion of a team dedicated to preventing the other team from scoring; contrasted with offense.
* An argument in support or justification of something.
    to come to someone's defense
** (law, by extension) The case presented by the defendant in a legal proceeding.
** (law, by extension) The lawyer or team thereof who presents such a case.
* (government, military, euphemistic) Government policy or (infra)structure related to the military.
    Department of Defense
* (obsolete) A prohibition; a prohibitory ordinance.

##### Synonyms

* See also Thesaurus:defense

##### Antonyms

* offense
* (law) prosecution

##### Derived terms

* affirmative defense
* air defense
* air-defense
* antidefense
* anti-slut defense
* Apartheid Defense League
* attack is the best form of defense
* biodefense
* black rage defense
* chemical defense
* Chewbacca defense
* civil defense
* counterdefense
* cyberdefense
* DEFCON
* defense attorney
* defense in abatement
* defense-independent pitching statistics
* defense in depth
* defense lawyer
* defenseless
* defense mechanism
* defense wound
* defensin
* defensive
* defensiveness
* eco-defense
* ecodefense
* gay panic defense
* homosexual panic defense
* immunodefense
* man-to-man defense
* Matrix defense
* misdefense
* nondefense
* Nuremberg defense
* orbital defense platform
* Pac-Man defense
* passive defense
* personal defense weapon
* prevent defense
* self-defense
* self-defense wound
* Shaggy defense
* space defense
* special defense
* the best defense is a good offense
* thesis defense
* tower defense
* trans panic defense
* zone defense

##### Translations
#### Verb

defense (third-person singular simple present defenses, present participle defensing, simple past and past participle defensed)
* (sports, chiefly US) To employ defensive tactics (so as to block). [from 1932]
** 1972, Robert Cimbollek, Basketball’s Percentage Offense, West Nyack, N.Y.: Parker Publishing Company, Inc., →ISBN, page 114:In fact, there is an increase in the effectiveness of the Five Cutter Offense when teams put pressure on, instead of sagging or switching in an attempt to defense the attack successfully.
** 2013 November 16, Brett Marshall, “The Garden City Telegram, Kan., Brett Marshall column”, in McClatchy - Tribune Business News, Tribune Content Agency:But the Buffs’ coaching staff made some adjustments in the way they defensed the Heights’ vaunted veer-option offense, and after being bullied around for 271 yards in the first half, yielded only 140 in the second half.
** 2014 November 28, Associated Press, “Vols beat Santa Clara, face Kansas”, in The Tennessean, page 2:“It was most important to start the second half right,” Tennessee coach Donnie Tyndall said. “They dug in and defensed the right way.”

### Etymology 2

From Middle English defencen, defensen, from Old French defenser or its etymon, Latin dēfēnsō.

#### Verb

defense (third-person singular simple present defenses, present participle defensing, simple past and past participle defensed)
* (now rare) To furnish with defenses; to defend, protect.
** 1544, Iames the Erle of Purlilia [i.e., Jacopo di Porcia], translated by Peter Betham, “What is to be done in yͤ syege of bygge cities”, in The Preceptes of Warre, […], London: […] Edwarde Whytchurche. […] to be solde […] by William Telotson:In the ſyege of greate cities, takyng a bygge compaſſe rounde abowte, we muſt wyth all laboure: make and intercut not farre of the citie, bꝛode and depe trenches defenſed wyth turrettes of woodde, […]
** 1587, George Turberuile, “The Argument to the tenth Historie”, in Tragicall Tales […], London: […] Abell Ieffs, […], folio 130, verso:VVhere being plaſt, vnvviſt of any vvight, / He ſtayde his time, till husband fel on ſleepe, / Then out he gate, defenſt vvith darke of night, / And ſoftly to Salueſtras bed did creepe: […]
** 1661, Percie Enderbie, Cambria Triumphans, or Brittain in Its Perfect Lustre, Shewing the Origen and Antiquity of That Illustrious Nation. […], London: […] Andrew Crooke, […], page 21:The Country of Britain was in old times adorned with 28 Cities, beſide innumerable number of Caſtles defenſed with ſtrong Walls, Towers, Gates and Locks.

### References

* 1 2 3 4 5 “defence | defense, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
* ↑ “dēfensen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

## Latin
### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /deːˈfen.se/, [d̪eːˈfẽːs̠ɛ]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /deˈfen.se/, [d̪eˈfɛnse]

### Participle

dēfēnse
* vocative masculine singular of dēfēnsus

## Portuguese
### Verb

defense
* inflection of defensar:
** first/third-person singular present subjunctive
** third-person singular imperative

## Spanish
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /deˈfense/ [d̪eˈfẽn.se]
* Rhymes: -ense
* Syllabification: de‧fen‧se

### Verb

defense
* inflection of defensar:
** first/third-person singular present subjunctive
** third-person singular imperative