defender

[ dih-fen-der ]

noun

1. a person who defends someone or something from attack, assault, or injury:

   We commemorate the brave defenders of this fort.

2. Law. an attorney for a defendant, especially a public defender:

   the systemwide benefits of effective defenders.

3. a person who supports an argument, theory, thesis, etc., in the face of criticism or challenging questions:

   defenders of gay rights.

4. Sports.
   1. a team player whose assigned role is to prevent the other team from scoring:

      On the court, he’s an exceptional defender and a natural leader.

   2. a contestant or team that attempts to retain a championship title, rank, etc., in a competition against a challenger:

      Her main rival is the young title defender from Italy.

Word History and Origins

Origin of defender¹

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English; defend ( def ) + -er ²( def )

Example Sentences

As Jared said before, Murray isn’t going to see better defenders than he did last round, which has to be encouraging for the Nuggets.

From FiveThirtyEight

He stood at the free-throw line with 4-on-3 advantages and all but played with his food by looking off defenders before firing passes to open 3-point shooters.

From FiveThirtyEight

Former teammate Kei Kamara remembers games in which Davies would “effortlessly” run around defenders in loops, or toy with them with the ball at his feet.

From FiveThirtyEight

Getting by defenders like Jimmy Butler, Jae Crowder, Bam Adebayo and Andre Iguodala was never going to be easy.

From FiveThirtyEight

And, even with Westbrook’s propensity to gamble more than he probably should as an off-ball defender, none are obvious weak links on that end.

From FiveThirtyEight

And, as any good public defender would, Wolf says the allegations are absurd.

From The Daily Beast

Kadyrov then declared himself to be “the main human rights defender” in Chechnya.

From The Daily Beast

He could be remade into a defender of the environment, a preserver of habitats and champion of rainforest ecology.

From The Daily Beast

A hulking defender breaks into the backfield and takes him down with a vicious clothesline tackle.

From The Daily Beast

And into the fray comes a weapon I never thought would have been legal, let alone humane—something called Knee Defender.

From The Daily Beast

John Cantacuzenus, the historian of his own times, and a defender of the faith, inaugurated emperor of Constantinople.

From Project Gutenberg

Maximilian Lamarque, died at Paris; a distinguished French officer, and defender of liberal principles.

From Project Gutenberg

They stared rudely at the beautiful traveller who was starting off with so many trunks, and a dog of such size for her defender.

From Project Gutenberg

After the trial races and consequent choice of 'Vigilant' as defender, public attention was centred on the coming of 'Valkyrie.'

From Project Gutenberg

Tears came to his eyes, and he could have embraced his defender.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• protector
• sponsor
• supporter