defender

noun

de·​fend·​er di-ˈfen-dər 

1

: one that defends

2

: a player in a sport (such as football) assigned to a defensive position

Synonyms

• custodian
• guard
• guardian
• guardian angel
• protection
• protector

Examples of defender in a Sentence

one of the traditional roles of an older brother is that of schoolyard defender

Recent Examples on the Web

Think of games against the Lions and Patriots, when passes thrown bounced off him and into the arms of defenders. —Blair Kerkhoff, Kansas City Star, 19 July 2024

Jonathan Lewis earned his second assist of the campaign and defender Sam Vines snagged his first. —Houston Mitchell, Los Angeles Times, 18 July 2024

Lou Dobbs, who had a lengthy career as a business news anchor at CNN before becoming one of Donald Trump’s biggest defenders as a host on Fox, has died at the age of 78. —Jeremy Barr, Washington Post, 18 July 2024

Zoom in: The new coalition will start its work by developing standards for software supply chain security for AI systems, compiling resources to measure the risk of these tools and pulling together a framework to help defenders determine the best use cases for AI in their work. —Sam Sabin, Axios, 18 July 2024

Word History

Etymology

Middle English defendour, defender, borrowed from Anglo-French defendour, defendur, from defend-, stem of defendre "to defend" + -our, -ur -or entry 1

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing defender

• public defender

Kids Definition

defender

noun

de·​fend·​er -ˈfen-dər 

1

: one that defends

2

: a player in a sport (as football) who plays a defensive position

Legal Definition

defender

noun

de·​fend·​er

: a lawyer who represents defendants

especially : public defender