Defensively
(De*fen"sive*ly), adv. On the defensive.
Defensor
(De*fen"sor) n. [L. See Defenser.]
1. A defender. Fabyan.
2. (Law) A defender or an advocate in court; a guardian or protector.
3. (Eccl.) The patron of a church; an officer having charge of the temporal affairs of a church.
Defensory
(De*fen"so*ry) a. [L. defensorius.] Tending to defend; defensive; as, defensory preparations.
Defer
(De*fer") v. t. [imp. & p. p. Deferred ; p. pr. & vb. n. Deferring.] [OE. differren, F. différer,
fr. L. differre to delay, bear different ways; dis- + ferre to bear. See Bear to support, and cf. Differ,
Defer to offer.] To put off; to postpone to a future time; to delay the execution of; to delay; to withhold.
Defer the spoil of the city until night.
Shak.
God . . . will not long defer
To vindicate the glory of his name.
Milton. Defer
(De*fer"), v. i. To put off; to delay to act; to wait.
Pius was able to defer and temporize at leisure.
J. A. Symonds. Defer
(De*fer"), v. t. [F. déférer to pay deference, to yield, to bring before a judge, fr. L. deferre to bring
down; de- + ferre to bear. See Bear to support, and cf. Defer to delay, Delate.]
1. To render or offer. [Obs.]
Worship deferred to the Virgin.
Brevint. 2. To lay before; to submit in a respectful manner; to refer; — with to.
Hereupon the commissioners . . . deferred the matter to the Earl of Northumberland.
Bacon. Defer
(De*fer"), v. i. To yield deference to the wishes of another; to submit to the opinion of another, or
to authority; — with to.
The house, deferring to legal right, acquiesced.
Bancroft. Deference
(Def"er*ence) n. [F. déférence. See 3d Defer.] A yielding of judgment or preference from
respect to the wishes or opinion of another; submission in opinion; regard; respect; complaisance.
Deference to the authority of thoughtful and sagacious men.
Whewell.
Deference is the most complicate, the most indirect, and the most elegant of all compliments.
Shenstone.
