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Defence   /dɪfˈɛns/   Listen
noun
Defence  n., v. t.  See Defense.


Defence, Defense  n.  
1.
The act of defending, or the state of being defended; protection, as from violence or danger. "In cases of defense 't is best to weigh The enemy more mighty than he seems."
2.
That which defends or protects; anything employed to oppose attack, ward off violence or danger, or maintain security; a guard; a protection. "War would arise in defense of the right." "God, the widow's champion and defense."
3.
Protecting plea; vindication; justification. "Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defense."
4.
(Law) The defendant's answer or plea; an opposing or denial of the truth or validity of the plaintiff's or prosecutor's case; the method of proceeding adopted by the defendant to protect himself against the plaintiff's action.
5.
Act or skill in making defense; defensive plan or policy; practice in self defense, as in fencing, boxing, etc. "A man of great defense." "By how much defense is better than no skill."
6.
Prohibition; a prohibitory ordinance. (Obs.) "Severe defenses... against wearing any linen under a certain breadth."


verb
Defense  v. t.  (Written also defence)  To furnish with defenses; to fortify. (Obs.) "Better manned and more strongly defensed."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Defence" Quotes from Famous Books



... occupied comprised some thirty acres, level as a prairie, part of which was under cultivation; the whole being fenced in by a stout palisade of trunks and boughs of trees staked firmly in the ground. This was necessary as a defence against the wild cattle and hogs overrunning ...
— Omoo: Adventures in the South Seas • Herman Melville
... to be deprived of my aid, though I am alive, and with me still living to need the help of others; and my voice, of all others, to fail when dangers threatened my family, which had so often been successfully used in the defence of the merest strangers. For as to the slaves coming to you without a letter, the real reason (for you see that it was not anger) was a deadness of my faculties, and a seemingly endless deluge of tears and sorrows. How many tears ...
— The Letters of Cicero, Volume 1 - The Whole Extant Correspodence in Chronological Order • Marcus Tullius Cicero
... proposed it as an Argument in Defence of a Regular Stage, that it lies on its Adversaries to prove it against Law or Scripture, and so might leave it justify'd till some Person or other make the Discovery to the World: But because 'tis my Opinion 'tis utterly impossible, ...
— A Letter to A.H. Esq.; Concerning the Stage (1698) and The - Occasional Paper No. IX (1698) • Anonymous
... is Russia remembering her Creator in the days of her youth—and forgetting Him ever since; from then on, Holy Russia! Possibly Holy Vladimir, at any rate, for becoming, with that ceremony, peaceable, except for self-defence, he gave up all of his idols and his aggressive sword. The former he scourged and cast into the river, the latter he sheathed in its scabbard. And all this about 988—the first peace movement of Holy Russia. The faith of it, and ...
— Popular Science Monthly Volume 86
... I am going to give his story to the public and I shall have to take chances and risk his displeasure. In that event I have the defence of pleading that no man has the right to withhold so good a tale from ...
— Where Strongest Tide Winds Blew • Robert McReynolds


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