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he benefit of law, as a failure to appear in court at a day assigned, especially of the defendant in a suit when called to make answer; also of jurors, witnesses, etc. In default of, in case of failure or lack of. Cooks could make artificial birds and fishes in default of the real ones. Arbuthnot. -- To suffer a defaul…

That which serves to protect or defend.

The act of defending, or the state of being defended; protection, as from violence or danger. In cases of defense 't is best to weigh The enemy more mighty than he seems. Shak.

Defender. [Obs.] Foxe.

Capability of being defended.

Capable of being defended; as, a defensible city, or a defensible cause.

Capability of being defended; defensibility. Priestley.

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

A defender. Fabyan.

Tending to defend; defensive; as, defensory preparations.

Refined; gentle; scrupulous not to trespass or offend; considerate; -- said of manners, conduct, or feelings; as, delicate behavior; delicate attentions; delicate thoughtfulness.

Failing in duty; offending by neglect of duty.

main ditch of a fortress, and in front of the curtain between two bastions, intended to defend the curtain; a ravelin. See Ravelin.

nse; outrageous; -- used to mark the extreme predominance of a bad quality. A desperate offendress against nature. Shak. The most desperate of reprobates. Macaulay.

To vex; to annoy; to offend contemptuously. [Obs.] Sir W. Raleigh.

To cleanse; to purge away, as foul or offending matter from the body, or from an ulcer.

To turn aside from the right path; to transgress; to offend. [R.] Thy abundant goodness shall excuse This deadly blot on thy digressing son. Shak.

on." Shak. Indirectly and directly too Thou hast contrived against the very life Of the defendant. Shak.

chnical interruption of the proceedings in pleading in an action, which follows where a defendant does not answer the whole of the plaintiff's declaration, and the plaintiff omits to take judgment for the part unanswered. Wharton's Law Dict. Burrill.

distaste in; to cause (any one) loathing, as of the stomach; to excite aversion in; to offend the moral taste of; -- often with at, with, or by. To disgust him with the world and its vanities. Prescott. Ærius is expressly declared . . . to have been disgusted at failing. J. H. Newman. Alarmed and disgusted by the proc…