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who maintains or vindicates a claim or a right; an affirmer, supporter, or vindicator; a defender; an asserter. The assertors of liberty said not a word. Macaulay. Faithful assertor of thy country's cause. Prior.

A legal agent qualified to act for suitors and defendants in legal proceedings; an attorney at law.

To defeat or evade; to invalidate. Thus, in a replication, the plaintiff may deny the defendant's plea, or confess it, and avoid it by stating new matter. Blackstone.

The defendant in replevin, who avows the distress of the goods, and justifies the taking. Cowell.

To raise a mound or dike about; to inclose, defend, or fortify with a bank; to embank. "Banked well with earth." Holland.

tification, consisting of two faces and two flanks, and so constructed that it is able to defend by a flanking fire the adjacent curtain, or wall which extends from one bastion to another. Two adjacent bastions are connected by the curtain, which joins the flank of one with the adjacent flank of the other. The distance…

A declaration made in writing, stating some wrong the complainant has suffered from the defendant, or a fault committed by some person against a law.

it as to have its sides make an angle wit the sides of the lower story, thus enabling the defenders to fire downward, and in all directions; -- formerly much used in America and Germany.

A guard to protect or defend the person; a lifeguard.

To shield; to defend. [Obs.] Can Oxford, that did ever fence the right, Now buckler falsehood with a pedigree Shak.

That which secures against an enemy, or defends from attack; any means of defense or protection. The royal navy of England hath ever been its greatest defense, . . . the floating bulwark of our island. Blackstone.

he individual jurors returned. -- Peremptory challenge, a privilege sometimes allowed to defendants, of challenging a certain number of jurors (fixed by statute in different States) without assigning any cause. -- Principal challenge, that which the law allows to be sufficient if found to be true.

another's honor or rights; or one who acts or speaks in behalf of a person or a cause; a defender; an advocate; a hero. A stouter champion never handled sword. Shak. Champions of law and liberty. Fisher Ames.

non placed at the bow or stern of an armed vessel, and used when pursuing an enemy, or in defending the vessel when pursued. -- Chase port (Naut.), a porthole from which a chase gun is fired. -- Stern chase (Naut.), a chase in which the pursuing vessel follows directly in the wake of the vessel pursued.…

iron barrel traversed with iron-pointed spikes or spears, five or six feet long, used to defend a passage, stop a breach, or impede the advance of cavalry, etc. Obstructions of chain, boom, and cheval-de-frise. W. Irving.

rench dug in the botton of a dry moat, and extending across it, to enable the besieged to defend it by a raking fire.

A form of defense in the action of replevin, by which the defendant insists that the goods were lawfully taken, as a distress, by defendant, acting as servant for another. [Eng.] Cowell. Mozley & W.

One who ackowledged the right of the plaintiff or cognizee in a fine; the defendant. Blackstone.

An instrument in writting whereby a defendant in an action acknowledges a plaintiff's demand to be just. Mozley & W.

An apparent right; as where the defendant in trespass gave to the plaintiff an appearance of title, by stating his title specially, thus removing the cause from the jury to the court. Blackstone.