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Want or absence of something necessary for completeness or perfection; deficiency; -- opposed to superfluity. Errors have been corrected, and defects supplied. Davies.

To deny the right of the plaintiff in regard to (the suit, or the wrong charged); to oppose or resist, as a claim at law; to contest, as a suit. Burrill.

A person required to make answer in an action or suit; -- opposed to plaintiff. Abbott.

That which defends or protects; anything employed to oppose attack, ward off violence or danger, or maintain security; a guard; a protection. War would arise in defense of the right. Tennyson. God, the widow's champion and defense. Shak.

Destitute of defense; unprepared to resist attack; unable to oppose; unprotected. -- De*fense"less*ly, adv. -- De*fense"less*ness, n.

Serving to defend or protect; proper for defense; opposed to offensive; as, defensive armor. A moat defensive to a house. Shak.

Direct; proving directly; -- applied to reasoning, and opposed to elenchtic or refutative.

To esteem worthy; to consider worth notice; -- opposed to disdain. [Obs.] I fear my Julia would not deign my lines. Shak.

Befitting the common people; -- opposed to aristocratic. The Democratic party, the name of one of the chief political parties in the United States.

ing down, or destroying a pile or structure; destruction by violence; utter overthrow; -- opposed to construction; as, the demolition of a house, of military works, of a town, or of hopes.

clusion is the immediate sequence of reasoning from axiomatic or established premises; -- opposed to Indirect, or Negative, demonstration (called also reductio ad absurdum), in which the correct conclusion is an inference from the demonstration that any other hypothesis must be incorrect.

Having a specific name or denomination; specified in the concrete as opposed to abstract; thus, 7 feet is a denominate quantity, while 7 is mere abstract quantity or number. See Compound number, under Compound.

The quality of being dense, close, or thick; compactness; -- opposed to rarity.

To declare not to be true; to gainsay; to contradict; -- opposed to affirm, allow, or admit.

forth or away; to quit, leave, or separate, as from a place or a person; to withdraw; -- opposed to arrive; -- often with from before the place, person, or thing left, and for or to before the destination. I will depart to mine own land. Num. x. 30. Ere thou from hence depart. Milton. He which hath no stomach to this…

By design; purposely; intentionally; -- opposed to accidentally, ignorantly, or inadvertently.

Pertaining to, or situated on, the right hand; right, as opposed to sinister, or left. On sounding wings a dexter eagle flew. Pope.

Right, as opposed to sinistral, or left. Dextral shell (Zoöl.), a spiral shell the whorls of which turn from left right, or like the hands of a watch when the apex of the spire is toward the eye of the observer.

r formed by depressions in the general surface; as, diaglyphic sculpture or engraving; -- opposed to anaglyphic.

Diagonal; diametrical; hence; diametrically opposed. [Obs.] Sin can have no tenure by law at all, but is rather an eternal outlaw, and in hostility with law past all atonement; both diagonal contraries, as much allowing one another as day and night together in one hemisphere. Milton.