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

On the defensive.

Defenseless. [Obs.] The sword awes the indefensive villager. Sir T. Herbert.

Defending, or tending to defend, one's own person, property, or reputation.

Threadlike defensive organs, composed largely of nettling cells (cnidæ), thrown out of the mouth or special pores of certain Actiniæ when irritated.

n which troops are formed, or by which are marched in line or column. (b) An advantageous defensive support, as a castle, morass, wood, declivity, etc.

Defensive arms for the body; any clothing or covering worn to protect one's person in battle.

Covered with defensive plates of metal, as a ship of war; steel-clad. This day will be launched . . . the first armor-plated steam frigate in the possession of Great Britain. Times (Dec. 29, 1860).

Armor: defensive and offensive arms. Celestial armory, shields, helms, and spears. Milton.

Accoutered with defensive armor; -- said of a horse. See Barded ( which is the proper form.) Sir W. Raleigh.

A piece of defensive (or, sometimes, ornamental) armor for a horse's neck, breast, and flanks; a barb. [Often in the pl.]

Accoutered with defensive armor; -- said of a horse.

A piece of defensive armor for the arm. Johnson.

A plate of metal covering the breast as defensive armor. Before his old rusty breastplate could be scoured, and his cracked headpiece mended. Swift.

A defensive work of moderate height, hastily thrown up, of earth or other material.

falo skin, or other thick and elastic material, worn by soldiers in the 17th century as a defensive covering. -- Buff jerkin, originally, a leather waistcoat; afterward, one of cloth of a buff color. [Obs.] Nares. -- Buff stick (Mech.), a strip of wood covered with buff leather, used in polishing.

A piece of defensive or ornamental armor (with or without a vizor) for the head and neck; a helmet. His casque overshadowed with brilliant plumes. Prescott.

apping each other, and it has a group of long sharp spines on each wing which are used as defensive organs. It is a shy bird, and runs with great rapidity. Other species inhabit New Guinea, Australia, etc.

Defensive armor used for the whole body and often for the horse, also, esp. the linked mail or scale armor of some eastern nations.

hook (Naut.), a hook, used for dragging cables about the deck. -- Chain mail, flexible, defensive armor of hammered metal links wrought into the form of a garment. -- Chain molding (Arch.), a form of molding in imitation of a chain, used in the Normal style. -- Chain pier, a pier suspended by chain. -- Chain pipe…