defend
part of speech
verb (defend, defends, defended, defending)
meaning for a pupil
1) To defend someone or something is to protect it from attack or harm. tree →
2) To defend is to speak up in support of someone or an idea. tree →
3) In sport to defend is to try to stop the other team scoring. tree →
sense in the lessons
In history lessons castles had walls, moats and towers to defend them. In science animals defend themselves with spines, shells, stings or camouflage. In PE defenders stop goals. In PSHE pupils learn to defend a friend who is being bullied by telling an adult. Phrases: defend yourself, defend against, defend a goal, defend someone's opinion.
examples
- The soldiers defended the castle. tree →
- A porcupine defends itself with sharp quills. tree →
- She defended her friend from the bullies. tree →
- Our team defended well in the second half. tree →
- He defended his idea in the class debate. tree →
- The goalkeeper defends the goal. tree →
- Mother birds defend their nests. tree →
- Pinocchio, although alone, defended himself bravely. tree →
note
Regular verb (defended). Noun: defence (UK) / defense (US). Person: defender. Opposite: attack. Defending yourself is about being safe — getting away and telling an adult is often the best defence.
In the corpora
- Elephants use their tusks to dig for water and salt, strip bark, move things and defend themselves.
- Zebras defend themselves with powerful kicks and bites that can badly injure a lion, and they have never been tamed like horses.
- A blue tang has a sharp spine like a little knife near its tail that it can flick out to defend itself.
- Tarantulas are mostly gentle; their bite is usually no worse than a bee sting, and some flick itchy hairs to defend themselves.
- Many of these plants make caffeine or similar chemicals to defend themselves from insects.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «defend» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.