public defender

American  

noun

public defenders plural

1. a lawyer appointed or elected by a city or county as a full-time, official defender to represent indigents in criminal cases at public expense.

---

public defender British  

noun

1. (in the US) a lawyer engaged at public expense to represent indigent defendants

---

public defender Cultural  

1. An attorney who is appointed and paid by a court to defend poor persons who cannot afford a lawyer.

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• public defenders
  plural

Etymology

Origin of public defender

First recorded in 1915–20

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

public defender

Look, Judge Freeman was a federal public defender for 13 years.

From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2026

During her decade as a public defender in Arctic Alaska, Rebecca Wright Stevens found the summer’s constant sunlight more unsettling than the winter’s constant darkness.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026

Tapp remained a strong public defender of Sir Keir until he set out his resignation plans on Monday.

From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026

Bayne’s three-decade career has been dominated by 25 years as a deputy public defender.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026

In Lake Charles, Louisiana, the public defender office has only two investigators for the 2,500 new felony cases and 4,000 new misdemeanor cases assigned to the office each year.

From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander