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See Defense.

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.

See Self-defense.

rgument. -- In bar of, as a sufficient reason against; to prevent. -- Matter in bar, or Defence in bar, a plea which is a final defense in an action. -- Plea in bar, a plea which goes to bar or defeat the plaintiff's action absolutely and entirely. -- Trial at bar (Eng. Law), a trial before all the judges of one th…

Covering; shelter; defence; hiding. Protected by walls or other like coverture. Woodward. Beatrice, who even now Is couched in the woodbine coverture. Shak.

To furnish with defenses; to fortify. [Obs.] [Written also defence.] Better manned and more strongly defensed. Hales.

ne whose profession is to conduct lawsuits for clients, or to advise as to prosecution or defence of lawsuits, or as to legal rights and obligations in other matters. It is a general term, comprehending attorneys, counselors, solicitors, barristers, sergeants, and advocates.

A small vessel propelled by sails or oars, formerly employed as a tender, or for coast defence; -- called originally, spynace or spyne.

dy; to provide; as, to prepare ammunition and provisions for troops; to prepare ships for defence; to prepare an entertainment. Milton. That they may prepare a city for habitation. Ps. cvii. 36

To hold out; to stretch forth. [Obs.] With his protended lance he makes defence. Dryden .

A kick; a blow with the foot. [R.] What defence can properly be used in such a despicable encounter as this but either the slap or the spurn Milton.

A contest between nations or states, carried on by force, whether for defence, for revenging insults and redressing wrongs, for the extension of commerce, for the acquisition of territory, for obtaining and establishing the superiority and dominion of one over the other, or for any other purpose; armed conflict of sove…