defended

English

Etymology

From defend +‎ -ed.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɪˈfɛndɪd/
• Hyphenation: de‧fend‧ed
• Rhymes: -ɛndɪd

Adjective

defended (comparative more defended, superlative most defended)

1. Having defenses.
   • 1991, R. Thomas Palo, ‎Charles T. Robbins, Plant Defenses Against Mammalian Herbivory, page 89:

     For example, in the boreal forest where browsing by hares in winter is an important source of mortality, the juvenile-phase is more defended chemically against browsing by hares in winter than is the conspecific mature-phase (Table 2).

   • 2018, Zhilan Feng, ‎Donald DeAngelis, Mathematical Models of Plant-Herbivore Interactions, page 68:

     This result corroborates the Hypothesis 2 that the less defended fast-growing species can be replaced over time by more defended slower-growing species.

   • 2018, Dorothy Judd, Give Sorrow Words: Working with a Dying Child, page 1976:

     Understandably, the more extreme the condition, the more defended the family and professionals can be.

2. (law, not comparable) In which the defendant responds to the allegations made against them, typically by filing a defense or counterclaim in court.
   • 1910 March 29, “Royal Commission on Divorce and Matrimonial Causes”, in Reports from Commissioners, Inspectors, and Others, volume 18, page 476:

     If this simpler procedure were adopted in a defended case the cost would be about 29l. if counsel were employed, and about 27l. if no counsel or solicitor were employed.

   • 1993, Jeremy McBride, ‎Claude Samson, Alternative dispute resolution, page 554:

     But only in less than 5% there was a court order in a defended case (Müller-Alten, 1984).

   • 2018, Ruth Lamont, Family Law, page 113:

     The Court of Appeal used the case to make a strong call for the removal of fault-based grounds, arguably at the expense of deciding in Mrs Owens' favour, and openly acknowledged that a lower threshold for behaviour is used in undefended cases scrutinised by a legal adviser at a divorce centre rather than a judge in a court in a defended case.

Derived terms

• overdefended
• undefended

 

Verb

defended

1. simple past and past participle of defend

Spanish

Verb

defended

1. second-person plural imperative of defender