defend
defend - verb
- To drive danger or attack away from
- To attempt to prevent an opponent from scoring at
- Prevent, forbid
- To act as attorney for
Usage examples
Examples: "I like to defend every day." "Can you defend this for me?" "Let's defend together."
SpellingJoy score for defend
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Etymology
Latin
Middle English defenden, borrowed from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French defendre, defender, going back to Latin dēfendere "to ward off, fend off, repel danger from, protect," from dē- de- + -fendere, presumably, "to strike, hit" (unattested without prefixes), going back to Indo-European {it}*g{sup}wh{/sup}en-d{sup}h{/sup}-,{/it} extended determinate form of {it}*g{sup}wh{/sup}en-, *g{sup}wh{/sup}n-{/it} "strike, kill," whence Hittite kuenzi "(s/he) kills," kunanzi "(they) kill," Sanskrit hánti "(s/he) strikes, kills," ghnánti "(they) strike, kill," Greek theínein "to strike," épethnon "(I) killed," Old Irish gonaid "(s/he) pierces, wounds, kills," Welsh gwan- "stab, pierce," Lithuanian genù, giñti "to drive (cattle, etc.)," Old Church Slavic ženǫ, gŭnati "to drive, chase out, expel"; also, from nominal derivative {it}*g{sup}wh{/sup}on-,{/it} Greek phónos "bloodshed, murder," and from {it}*g{sup}wh{/sup}ń̥-tih{inf}2{/inf},{/it} Germanic *gunþī, *gunþjō, whence Old English gūþ "battle, combat," Old Saxon gūđea, Old High German gund-, Old Icelandic gunnr, guðr