defensive.
Intended for defence; protective.
Meaning & usage
Intended for defence; protective.
a defensive perimeter
Intended to deter attack.
a defensive missile system
Performed so as to minimise risk.
defensive driving
Displaying an inordinate sensitivity to criticism or intrusion; oversensitive; thin-skinned.
Of a bowling or fielding tactic designed to prevent the other side from scoring runs; of a batting tactic designed to prevent being out.
Pertaining to defense, as opposed to attack.
The victim held up his hand to repel the attacker and received a defensive knife wound.
In a state or posture of defense.
Where this word comes from
From Middle French défensif. Morphologically defense + -ive.
A means, attitude or position of defense. Chiefly in on the defensive.
Where this word comes from
From Middle French défensif. Morphologically defense + -ive.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.