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defensive Definition

de·fen·sive (dē fen′siv, di-)

adjective

  1. defending
  2. of or for defense
  3. designating or of the side that defends a goal, basket, etc. in a contest
  4. Psychol. constantly feeling under attack and hence quick to justify one's actions

Etymology: ME & OFr defensif < ML defensivus < L defensus: see defense

noun

  1. Obsolete something that defends
  2. a position of defense: chiefly in the phrase on the defensive, in a condition of resisting or being ready to resist attack or danger

defensive Related Forms
de·fen′·sively adverb de·fen′·sive·ness noun
defensive Synonyms

defensive

modif.

protective, protecting, defending, shielding, guarding, safeguarding, warding off, watchful, wary, guarded, preventive, averting, forestalling, foiling, balking, arresting, checking, frustrating, thwarting, opposing, resistive, withstanding, armored, on the defensive, in self-defense, in opposition, self-justifying, touchy, prickly, self-protective; see also armed, irritable, unfriendly 1.

Antonyms aggressive*, offensive*, combative.

defensive Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • become: Take it easy, do not become defensive and reply in a considered way.

Adjective complement with noun phrase

  • make: Labor originally decided to dilute the charter because it " made staff more defensive " .

Adjective modifier

  • central: Jack Pearce has warned Bognor's new central defensive pairing they will need to be on top of their game against Fisher Athletic tomorrow.

Modifies a noun

  • midfielder: He's a ready made defensive midfielder who has done really well in the French league in the last two years.
  • frailty: On the evidence of their defensive frailties, his services are required with some urgency.
  • lapse: We were pretty solid in the 1st 20 minutes and then 2 defensive lapses cost us.
  • mix-up: Belper were gifted a goal in the 2nd minute when a defensive mix-up saw their striker steal in and prod the ball home.
  • ditch: This road is built along the site of a Roman defensive ditch situated just north of Hadrian's Wall.
  • earthwork: Most likely, Wansdyke was a defensive linear earthwork.

Modifying Another Word

  • purely: Was our involvement in the development of the Quality Mark purely defensive?
  • overly: Overly defensive play will merely land you front-row seats to the fiery destruction of your own base.
  • essentially: The French military high command had developed an essentially defensive strategy from an essentially defensive national mind-set.
  • naturally: It stood in a naturally defensive location on the shoulder of a steep slope overlooking a crossing point of the River Lune.
  • primarily: In sites like Avebury the ditch is on the inside indicating the purpose was not primarily defensive.
  • merely: I would not want to say that this was merely defensive or self-protective.

Used with adjective complement

  • become: This resulted in downward pressure of fee levels with people becoming even more defensive about their charge out levels.
  • feel: When we want to resist anything; when we feel defensive; then the most common response is to tighten up.
  • sound: Without sounding too defensive, isn't it a tad hypocritical to label atheists as arrogant while not extending that to the religious folks?
  • get: But people never do that, they always get defensive, and start attacking, when we were trying to debate something else.

Preposition: in

  • nature: I have seen some of the advice provided, which was, perhaps inevitably, quite defensive in nature.