defend

== English == === 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. === Pronunciation === (weak vowel distinction) IPA(key): /dɪˈfɛnd/, [dɪˈfɛnd] IPA(key): /dɪˈfɪnd/, [dɪˈfɪ̟nd] (pin–pen merger) (weak vowel merger) IPA(key): /dəˈfɛnd/, [dəˈfɛnd] IPA(key): /dəˈfɪnd/, [dəˈfɪ̟nd] (pin–pen merger) Rhymes: -ɛnd Hyphenation: de‧fend === Verb === defend (third-person singular simple present defends, present participle defending, simple past and past participle defended) (transitive) To ward off attacks against; to fight to protect; to guard. (transitive) To support by words or writing; to vindicate, talk in favour of. (transitive, law) To make legal defence of; to represent (the accused). (sports) To focus one's energies and talents on preventing opponents from scoring, as opposed to focusing on scoring. (cricket) 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. (sports) 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. (poker slang) To call a raise from the big blind. (transitive, obsolete) To ward off, repel (an attack or attacker). (transitive, obsolete) To prevent, to keep (from doing something). (transitive, intransitive, obsolete) To prohibit, forbid. ==== Conjugation ==== ==== Synonyms ==== See also Thesaurus:defend ==== Antonyms ==== attack ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Related terms ==== ==== Translations ==== === Anagrams === fended