defense

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The act of defending against attack, danger, or injury.
• noun A means or method of defending or protecting.
• noun Sports The act or an instance of defending a championship against a challenger.
• noun An argument in support or justification of something. synonym: apology.
• noun The act of defending a case.
• noun A fact or law that provides a full or partial exoneration of the defendant against the charges or claims made in a lawsuit or prosecution.
• noun The defendant and his or her legal counsel.
• noun The science or art of defending oneself; self-defense.
• noun The means or tactics used in trying to stop the opposition from scoring.
• noun The team or those players on the team attempting to stop the opposition from scoring.
• noun Defending ability or potential.
• noun The military, governmental, and industrial complex, especially as it authorizes and manages weaponry production.
• transitive verb To attempt to stop (the opposition) from scoring.
• transitive verb To play defense against (an opponent or play).

from The Century Dictionary.

• To defend; protect; guard; shield; fortify.
• To defend; vindicate; maintain.
• noun The act of shielding or guarding from attack or injury; the act of resisting an attack or assault.
• noun The act of maintaining, supporting, or vindicating by force or argument.
• noun Something that repels or guards against attack, violence, danger, or injury; a protection; a safeguard; a security; a fortification.
• noun A speech or writing intended to repel or disprove a charge or an accusation; a vindication; an apology.
• noun In law: The method adopted by a person against whom legal proceedings have been taken for defending himself against them. More specifically
• noun The opposing or denial of the charge or cause of action, or of some essential element in it, as distinguished from opposition by a counter-claim.
• noun Defiance; resistance; offense.
• noun A prohibition.
• noun The science of defending against attack by force of arms; skill in defending from danger by means of weapons or of the fists; specifically, fencing or boxing.
• noun plural In heraldry, the natural weapons of an animal used as a bearing, as the tusks of a boar, or the like.
• noun The distance from the salient of a bastion to the opposite flank.
• noun A method or course to be pursued in conducting a defense of any kind.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb obsolete To furnish with defenses; to fortify.
• noun The act of defending, or the state of being defended; protection, as from violence or danger.
• noun That which defends or protects; anything employed to oppose attack, ward off violence or danger, or maintain security; a guard; a protection.
• noun Protecting plea; vindication; justification.
• noun (Law) The defendant's answer or plea; an opposing or denial of the truth or validity of the plaintiff's or prosecutor's case; the method of proceeding adopted by the defendant to protect himself against the plaintiff's action.
• noun Act or skill in making defense; defensive plan or policy; practice in self defense, as in fencing, boxing, etc.
• noun obsolete Prohibition; a prohibitory ordinance.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The action of defending or protecting from attack, danger, or injury.
• noun Anything employed to oppose attack(s).
• noun An argument in support or justification of something.
• noun Government policy or structure related to the military.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun an organization of defenders that provides resistance against attack
• noun (sports) the team that is trying to prevent the other team from scoring
• noun the act of defending someone or something against attack or injury
• noun protection from harm
• noun the defendant and his legal advisors collectively
• noun the justification for some act or belief
• noun (psychiatry) an unconscious process that tries to reduce the anxiety associated with instinctive desires
• noun the federal department responsible for safeguarding national security of the United States; created in 1947
• noun a defendant's answer or plea denying the truth of the charges against him