• defendor, defendour (obsolete)

From Middle English defender, deffender, defendere, defendour, defendoure, partly from Anglo-Norman defendour, from Old French defendëor; partly from Middle English defenden + -ere, equivalent to defend +‎ -er.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈfɛndə(ɹ)/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛndə(ɹ)

defender (plural defenders)

1. Someone who defends people or property.
2. (sports) One of the players whose primary task is to prevent the opposition from scoring.
3. A fighter who seeks to repel an attack.

   Synonyms: forefighter, protector

4. (law, rare) A lawyer who represents defendants, especially a public defender; a defense attorney (US) or defence counsel (UK).
   • 1822, Thomas Bayly Howell, A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and Other Crimes and Misdemeanors from the Earliest Period to the Year 1783, page 729:

     There was another protection to which she was intitled by that law, namely, a defender; but she had none.

   • 2007, Barry Krisberg, Susan Marchionna, Christopher Baird, Continuing the Struggle for Justice, →ISBN, page 248:

     So, what is contemplated under this model is that the defender would work with civil legal services lawyers to address the clients' needs.

   • 2010, Henry L. Hecht, Effective Depositions, →ISBN, page 243:

     It puts you at the head of the table, at a right angle to the witness; the court reporter sits to your right, and the defender sits on the witness's far side.

5. (Scots law) A defendant in a civil action.

• fendered, redefend

From Old Galician-Portuguese defender, from Latin dēfendere.

• IPA^(key): [defenˈdeɾ]

defender (first-person singular present defendo, first-person singular preterite defendín, past participle defendido)

1. (transitive) to defend

   Synonyms: amparar, protexer

2. (transitive) to care
3. (pronominal) to defend oneself
   • 1934, Castelao, Os dous de sempre, page 127:

     […] os empregados non se deixan asoballar pola súa maldade, e o mesmo porteiro deprendeu a poñerlle cara de can. Somente Pedro é un manteiguiñas, incapaz de defenderse. A covardía do xefe cabalga na covardía de Pedro, para locí-las arroutadas que non é quen de descargar no lombo dos outros. Pedro sofre en silenzo; pero cóme-no as xenreiras, e non pode ollá-la cara daquel home sen desexarlle a morte.

     […] employees don't allow him to humiliate them with his meanness, and even the doorman learnt to put an angry face for him. But Pedro is a poor thing, unable to defend himself. The boss' cowardice rides Pedro's, to show off the outbursts that he is incapable of discharging over other's shoulders. Pedro suffers in silence; but spite eats him, and he can't watch that man's face without wishing him death.

4. (pronominal) to be able or capable
5. (archaic) to forbid, prohibit, impede
   • 1390, J. L. Pensado Tomé, editor, Os Miragres de Santiago, Madrid: C.S.I.C., page 19:

     Et el vianos asi tristes, defendeonos que o nõ fosemos

     And he, seeing us so sad, forbade us to feel like this

From de- +‎ fender.

• IPA^(key): [defenˈdeɾ]

defender (first-person singular present defendo, first-person singular preterite defendín, past participle defendido)

1. (transitive) to plough

• Seoane, Ernesto Xosé González; Granja, María Álvarez de la; Agrelo, Ana Isabel Boullón (2006–2022), “defender”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval [Dictionary of dictionaries of Medieval Galician] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “defender”, in Corpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “defender”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “defender”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “defender”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

defender

1. to defend

From Latin dēfendō, dēfendere.

defender

1. to prohibit

From Old Galician-Portuguese defender, from Latin dēfendere.

• Audio (Portugal (Porto)):

  (file)

defender (first-person singular present defendo, first-person singular preterite defendi, past participle defendido)

1. to defend (repel an attack)

   Synonyms: (archaic) defensar, proteger

2. to defend (represent as a legal professional)
3. (rhetoric) to defend
4. to support (to back a cause, party etc.)

   Synonym: ser a favor de

5. (sports) to defend (to prevent the opponent from scoring)
6. (sports, intransitive) to play in defense
7. (higher education) to formally present a dissertation, thesis or project

For quotations using this term, see Citations:defender.

• “defender”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “defender”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Inherited from Old Spanish defender, a semi-learned borrowing from Latin dēfendere.

Cognate with English defend.

• IPA^(key): /defenˈdeɾ/ [d̪e.fẽn̪ˈd̪eɾ]

• Audio (Peru):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɾ
• Syllabification: de‧fen‧der

defender (first-person singular present defiendo, first-person singular preterite defendí, past participle defendido)

1. to defend, to protect, to hold down

   Synonym: proteger

2. to stand up for, to stick up for

   ¿Y quién puede defendernos?

   And who can defend us?

3. to uphold

   defender la ley ― to uphold the law

4. to prohibit

   Synonym: prohibir

5. to claim
6. (reflexive) to fight back
7. (reflexive) to defend oneself, to protect oneself
8. (reflexive) to stand up for oneself, to stick up for oneself
9. (pronominal) to fend off [with de]
10. (pronominal) to get by

    Me defiendo hablando inglés.

    I can get by in English.

• “defender”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=defender&oldid=89848289"