Other forms: defending, defended, defends
To defend is to protect somebody or something from attack. Defend the castle, defend yourself, defend a decision.
It covers physical protection, argument and law. To defend an argument is to give reasons for it under criticism; in court, a lawyer defends the accused. In sport, defending is stopping the other side scoring, and the defending champion is the one who won last time and is trying to keep the title. Note defend against for a threat and defend from for the thing you are protecting somebody out of. The noun is defence, or defense in American English.
1verbdefendTo protect somebody or something from attack.
“The whole village turned out to defend the footpath.”
2verbargueTo argue in support of something under criticism.
“He defended the decision for two hours and convinced nobody.”
3verbtryTo try to keep a title you already hold.
“She is defending the title for the third time.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
defend is a way of protecting.
Latin defendere is de-, away, plus a root meaning to strike — the same root as offend, which is to strike against. To defend is to strike an attack away, and defence and offence are two directions of the same blow.
Proto-Indo-European
*gʷʰen-
Proto-Italic
*fendō
Latin
dēfendō — to ward off
Old French
defendre
Middle English
defenden
English, today
defend
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 bewerian.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA