verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a lawyer acts for/defends/represents sb
▪ a group of lawyers who represent the airline
defend a majority (=try not to lose it)
▪ He is defending a majority of 400 against his Labour opponent.
defend a position
▪ Each of the next three speakers defended a different position.
defend a right (=take action to stop a right being taken away)
▪ We should defend our right to demonstrate.
defend sb's/sth's honour (=do something to protect it when it is being attacked)
▪ To defend his honour and his business interests, he was prepared to go to court.
defend/protect yourself from your enemies
▪ Our country has a right to protect itself from its enemies.
maintain/preserve/defend the status quo (=not make any changes)
▪ Will the West use its influence to maintain the status quo and not disrupt the flow of oil?
support/defend/back sb to the hilt
▪ I’m backing the PM to the hilt on this.
the defending/reigning champion (=the present one)
▪ Cheah defeated the defending champion in the National Grand Prix.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
successfully
▪ Heaton Mersey Village visited Wayfarers and scored 142 all out, a total they successfully defended bowling out Wayfarers for 112.
▪ Democrats successfully defended more than a dozen others.
vigorously
▪ Utilitarianism has been both vigorously defended and attacked in the last few decades.
▪ Frame said the suit is without merit and it will be defended vigorously.
▪ The club has vigorously defended the mayor against attacks by other disabled advocates who say Brown has done little for them.
▪ We will defend vigorously the libel proceedings commenced us by Virgin and its owner and any other proceedings they choose to commence.
▪ In an interview on Friday, Kerry vigorously defended his fund-raising.
▪ The resulting competition probably causes the animals to occupy small but adequate territories which are vigorously defended by a monogamous pair.
▪ The schools vigorously defend the trips.
■ NOUN
action
▪ Indeed, the responsibility and necessity for such action to defend children against parental mistreatment is strongly emphasised.
▪ In accordance with instructions, the officers took no action to defend themselves, although they were armed.
▪ The action is jointly defended by the historian Count Nikolai Tolstoy, who supplied much of the information for the pamphlet.
attack
▪ The houses next to the river had no owners; they were broken down and ruined, but could be defended against attack.
▪ That stresses, above all, that one should defend first and attack second.
▪ The club has vigorously defended the mayor against attacks by other disabled advocates who say Brown has done little for them.
▪ Instead, the arsenal ship would have relied on other warships to defend it against missile attacks.
▪ Paredes saw that neither diplomacy nor duplicity were of any avail and prepared to defend the city against attack.
▪ Paul D looked at the black trees lining the roadside, their defending arms raised against attack.
▪ Champfleury, for a time the leading advocate of Realism, defended that school against attacks made during the 1853 Salon.
champion
▪ Stuart Bingham, 23, from Basildon beat the defending champion 10-7.
▪ The defending champions ended up second, the bronze medalists fifth.
▪ In Istanbul Galatasaray fought back from two goals down to beat defending champions Real Madrid 3-2 in the other quarter-final.
▪ Ronnie Black is the defending champion.
▪ All year long, the Bruins were living with the fame and adulation of being defending national champions.
▪ A marvelous comeback, erasing a 24-point deficit against the two-time defending world champions.
▪ Distractions are everywhere, especially for a defending champion.
▪ She is the current two-time defending national rhythmic gymnastics champion.
charge
▪ Certainly I defended the community charge, which gave Labour councils in many areas the fright of their lives.
▪ Minorities are in a position of having to defend themselves against that charge.
▪ The state decided to defend the charges.
▪ Those fans who have defended Diamond against charges of pomposity will really love this record.
▪ Yet both defended themselves against the charge of infidelity.
▪ She defends the charges, saying they were necessary for Oxygen to finance a schedule of new programming.
▪ They were forced, as never before, to defend themselves against the charge of illegitimacy.
▪ Lemos resigned on March 25, allegedly in indignation at the failure of Barco to defend him against opposition charges.
country
▪ Just consider two generals defending your country and they both botch it.
▪ With one of the slenderest majorities to defend anywhere in the country, Mr Forsyth could be forgiven if he looked worried.
▪ They had been driven by brute necessity to defend one country.
decision
▪ Strong oral and written communication skills are essential for analysts to prepare, present, and defend budget proposals to decision makers.
▪ Yesterday the school defended its decision to allow a convicted fraudster to lecture students.
▪ But the council is defending its decision ... it says it has to find savings to balance its budget.
▪ The cost of this extended power is that governors will be liable to defend their decision before an industrial tribunal.
▪ He will, however, have to start defending them and other decisions still in the pipeline.
honour
▪ At least she died defending her honour.
policy
▪ But the rhetoric of those who defended government policy in the early 1680s was explicitly legalist in nature.
▪ The most difficult thing for Brown was defending a policy in public that he opposed in private.
▪ Home Secretary Kenneth Baker strongly defended his party's policies on crime.
▪ News organizations were quick to defend their policies, and some competitors saw the Fox announcement as a potential grab for publicity.
▪ Governments in the 1990s have sometimes found it difficult to gather the statistical information they need to make and defend policy.
▪ But he made employers wonder if they might end up defending their own policies at the courthouse.
▪ Yet it is very much less easy to defend the policy of expecting parents to buy their children's books.
▪ And beyond that, in October, loom the television debates where Bush will be required to defend his policies and plans.
position
▪ His father was ageing, unsure, falling back on old prejudices to defend his position.
▪ Crises are characterized by anger, miscommunications, defending of positions and unwillingness to listen.
▪ Firms may use advertising to defend their existing position or to signal to potential entrants that incursions will be challenged.
▪ Since Devon seldom attended the groups' meetings, Ray was left to defend his position alone.
▪ As a seedsman, how do you intend to defend your position?
▪ Diligently, even angrily, we express, discuss, and defend our ostensibly knowledgeable positions.
▪ Even the actions taken by governments may be inadequate to defend the position of the weak in society.
▪ Each of the next three speakers defended a different position.
record
▪ He would defend that title a record 12 times.
▪ Few, however, defend Vassiliev's record.
▪ John Gummer was not even on the Tory platform for a press conference to defend the Government's record on animal welfare.
right
▪ But it will defend equally vigorously the rights of women who choose to look after their children full-time.
▪ However, the liberal California court defended the right of teachers to petition for redress of grievances.
▪ Each of us is called to defend the rights of all.
▪ They were defending the right of the pamphleteer to publish ideas that were unpopular in society or inconvenient for the state.
▪ One threatened to call out the National Guard to defend Atlanta's water rights.
territory
▪ One of my pairs is actually reluctant to spawn if there is no-one from whom to defend their territory.
▪ Each was thus able to become a robust and self-aware entity, ready to defend its territory and its independence.
▪ Defended flowers can therefore be exploited more efficiently and it can pay a sunbird to defend a territory.
▪ A large mink can also travel further and defend a larger territory.
▪ For the rest of the year they wander their home ranges or defend their territories against all-comers.
▪ The third strategy involves intermediate-sized males behaving opportunistically: they call from potential egg-laying sites but do not defend territories.
▪ At the end of the summer, he must seek out and defend a territory.
title
▪ Though he had defeated heavyweight champion Sonny Liston and defended his title nine times, Ali never had a dramatic constituency before.
▪ Goltz has posted the best all-around score in the state this season and is favored to defend her all-around title.
▪ In the Ladies' Singles, Jenny Binns is defending the title she won for the first time last year.
▪ The Women's World Heavyweight Champion had defended her title at three consecutive events, each time soundly beating her opponents.
▪ He hopes to be fit to defend his Masters title at the end of next month and has begun light training.
▪ He and subsequent champions refused to defend their titles against blacks.
▪ While Johnson was prevented from defending his title in the United States, Ali had his taken from him.
▪ Hilary Walker will defend the women's title.
■ VERB
force
▪ We are forced to defend a system we know to be indefensible.
▪ But Momich has been forced to defend his right to operate his business in the courts.
▪ Okioc has been forced to defend its prospecting by calling in experts to look at the seal deaths.
▪ There she had been rudely thrown upon the hard ground and had been forced to defend herself.
help
▪ As they built in each new feature, they discussed how it would help to defend the castle from attackers.
▪ Understanding the Role of Antibodies Antibodies are protein substances manufactured by the human immune system to help defend us against diseases.
▪ Some drugs spark off this emergency response and help their targets to defend themselves.
▪ We have brought the barbarian across the Rhine in order to help defend our frontiers.
▪ All: Lord, help us to defend the oppressed.
▪ We have helped support and defend this city for decades.
▪ In contrast, female clownfish lay their eggs around sea anemones which they subsequently help to defend.
need
▪ Uncertain how the children might react, I thought it would perhaps come in handy if I needed to defend myself.
▪ She needed to defend herself against this critic.
▪ Governments in the 1990s have sometimes found it difficult to gather the statistical information they need to make and defend policy.
▪ Those rights which have been established, need to be defended, and therefore access to effective legal resource is indispensable.
▪ She no longer felt that she needed to defend herself, or even to account for herself, there.
▪ But this assumption is what an opponent of a holist theory of history needs to defend.
▪ She feels she needs this information to defend herself.
prepare
▪ As I have said before, if people advocate spending and tax increases, they should be prepared to defend them.
▪ Paredes saw that neither diplomacy nor duplicity were of any avail and prepared to defend the city against attack.
▪ Lawyers are usually required to prepare cases and defend them.
▪ Nobody is prepared to defend it very much.
▪ If they take any other course of action they must be prepared to defend it.
▪ But if I and mine prepare to defend the kingdom, you and yours must do the same.
▪ Unlike the Weimar Republic, the Bonn Republic is prepared to defend itself.
seek
▪ Throughout his life he sought to defend an idea of Britishness that was becoming increasingly outmoded.
▪ There is no advantage to be gained by Opposition Members seeking to defend the indefensible.
▪ Yet far from seeking to defend free speech, the Government is proposing to subject the media to even fewer controls.
▪ In the absence of these things, I seek to defend the present service as the best achievable.
▪ In this chapter, I have sought to defend this concessive holist view by drawing attention to the explanatory interest underlying it.
▪ At the end of the summer, he must seek out and defend a territory.
try
▪ If you just try to defend and hold out against them, it wears you down.
▪ Up there, it was like trying to defend cholera to a bunch of doctors.
▪ Why had she even wasted time trying to defend herself?
▪ No one could defend them; no one would ever try to defend the fate Pentheus suffered.
▪ Close to the tree was a shattered tumbler, which police believe Elizabeth used to try to defend herself.
▪ Should we flee or stay and try to defend ourselves?
▪ Michael told the Old Bailey he had tried to defend his brother Lee, 13, before his father turned on him.
▪ Zanger said he never tried to defend himself against Baldwin and only tried to protect his camera with the videotape inside.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Carey vigorously defended his fund-raising methods.
▪ Carson claims he was defending himself when he struck the other man.
▪ Cox moved quickly to defend her record as state senator.
▪ Everyone was shouting at me, and I never got a chance to defend myself.
▪ Freis defended a local radio station in a discrimination suit.
▪ Her speech defended the workers' right to strike.
▪ Hundreds of soldiers died while defending the town.
▪ It's difficult to defend a sport that involves hurting animals.
▪ She has repeatedly tried to defend her husband against hostile criticism in the press.
▪ The castle was built in 1549 to defend the island against invaders.
▪ The Fire Chief defended his staff and said that they had done everything possible to save the girl's life.
▪ The union said they would take action to defend their members' jobs.
▪ US troops in Panama will only be used to defend the Canal.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But if the worst happens, you have every right to defend yourself with reasonable force.
▪ Eliot, who might have defended himself, let Shildon's bitterness go unremarked.
▪ For 42 desperate minutes Boro defended stoutly, but held on.
▪ For the rest of the year they wander their home ranges or defend their territories against all-comers.
▪ Kelly had another good solid game, making a couple of very good runs forward, and using his pace when defending.
▪ She is the current two-time defending national rhythmic gymnastics champion.