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One who or that which defends or protects by warding off harm; as:

ion; an advocate; a vindicator. Provinces . . . left without their ancient and puissant defenders. Motley.

o violates any law, divine or human; a wrongdoer. I and my son Solomon shall be counted offenders. 1 Kings i. 21.

One who abets; an instigator of an offense or an offender.

violate; to pronounce free; as, to absolve a subject from his allegiance; to absolve an offender, which amounts to an acquittal and remission of his punishment. Halifax was absolved by a majority of fourteen. Macaulay.

ssion. -- Accessary after the fact, one who, after an offense, assists or shelters the offender, not being present at the commission of the offense.

e, an expression often used to designate an act declaring pardon or amnesty to numerous offenders, as at the beginning of a new reign. -- Act of indemnity, a statute passed for the protection of those who have committed some illegal act subjecting them to penalties. Abbott. -- Act in pais, a thing done out of court (…

on. Amende honorable(#). (Old French Law) A species of infamous punishment in which the offender, being led into court with a rope about his neck, and a lighted torch in his hand, begged pardon of his God, the court, etc. In popular language, the phrase now denotes a public apology or recantation, and reparation to an…

ation or title; a descriptive name. God chosen it for one of his appellatives to be the Defender of them. Jer. Taylor.

ho 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.

to be executed, to sign or indorse a warrant, issued in another county, to apprehend an offender. -- To back water (Naut.), to reverse the action of the oars, paddles, or propeller, so as to force the boat or ship backward.

le", formerly a castle or fortress in Paris, used as a prison, especially for political offenders; hence, a rhetorical name for a prison.

ly: A form of punishment among the Turks, Chinese, and others, consisting in beating an offender on the soles of his feet.

ty of duties, as the preservation of order in church service, the chastisement of petty offenders, etc.

iron with sliding shackles, and a lock at the end, to confine the feet of prisoners or offenders, esp. on board of ships. Methought I lay Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Shak.

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.

shing like the morn. Milton. In the presence of the shameless and unblushing, the young offender is ashamed to blush. Buckminster. He would stroke The head of modest and ingenuous worth, That blushed at its own praise. Cowper.

In Persia, a punishment of capital offenders, by laying them on the back in a covered boat, where they are left to perish.

A frame or fender of rope or junk, laid out at the sides or bows of a vessel to secure it from injury by floating ice.

A string used by the Turks for strangling offenders. Bowstring bridge, a bridge formed of an arch of timber or iron, often braced, the thrust of which is resisted by a tie forming a chord of the arch. -- Bowstring girder, an arched beam strengthened by a tie connecting its two ends. -- Bowstring hemp (Bot.), the tena…