Emily Dickinson Lexicon

DEF'E-CATE, v.t. [L. defæco; de and fæx, dregs.]

1. To purify; to refine; to clear from dregs or impurities; to clarify; as, to defecate liquor.
2. To purify from admixture; to clear; to purge of extraneous matter.

DEF'E-CA-TED, pp.

Purified; clarified; refined.

DEF'E-CA-TING, ppr.

Purifying; purging of lees or impurities.

DEF-E-CA'TION, a.

The act of separating from lees or dregs; purification from impurities or foreign matter.

DE-FECT', n. [L. defectus; It. difetto; Sp. defetto; from L. deficio, to fail; de and facio, to make or do.]

1. Want or absence of something necessary or useful toward perfection; fault; imperfection. We say, there are numerous defects in the plan, or in the work, or in the execution. Errors have been corrected, and defects supplied. Davies.
2. Failing; fault; mistake; imperfection in moral conduct, or in judgment. A deep conviction of the defects of our lives tends to make us humble. Trust not yourself; but, your defects to know, / Make use of every friend and every foe. Pope.
3. Any want, or imperfection, in natural objects; the absence of anything necessary to perfection; any thing unnatural or misplaced; blemish; deformity. We speak of a defect in the organs of seeing or hearing, or in a limb; a defect in timber; a defect in an instrument, &c.

DE-FECT', v.i.

To be deficient. [Not in use.] Brown.

DE-FECT-I-BIL'I-TY, n.

Deficiency; imperfection. [Little used.] Dingby. Hale.

DE-FECT'I-BLE, a.

Imperfect; deficient; wanting. [Little used.] Hale.

DE-FEC'TION, n. [L. defectio. See Defect.]

1. Want or failure of duty; particularly, a falling away; apostasy; the act of abandoning a person or cause to which one is bound by allegiance or duty, or to which one has attached himself. Our defection from God is proof of our depravity. The cause of the king was rendered desperate by the defection of the nobles.
2. Revolt; used of nations or states.

DE-FECT'IVE, a. [L. defectivus. See Defect.]

1. Wanting either in substance, quantity, or quality, or in any thing necessary; imperfect; as, a defective limb; defective timber; a defective copy or book; a defective account. Defective articulation, in speaking, renders utterance indistinct.
2. Wanting in moral qualities; faulty; blamable; not conforming to rectitude or rule; as, a defective character.
3. In grammar, a defective noun is one which wants a whole number or a particular case; an indeclinable noun.
4. A defective verb, is one which wants some of the tenses.

DE-FECT'IVE-LY, adv.

In a defective manner; imperfectly.

DE-FECT'IVE-NESS, n.

Want; the state of being imperfect; faultiness.

DE-FECT-U-OS'I-TY, n.

Defectiveness; faultiness. [Not used.] Montagu.

DE-FECT'U-OUS, a.

Full of defects. [Little used.] Worthington.

DEF-E-DA'TION, n.

Pollution. [Not in use.] Bentley.

DE-FEND', v.i.

To make opposition; as, the party comes into court, defends and says.

DE-FEND', v.t. [L. defendo; de and obs. fendo; Fr. defendre; It. difendere; Sp. defender; Port. id.; Arm. difenn, or divenn; W. difyn; Norm. fendu; struck; defender, to oppose, to prohibit. The primary sense is to strike, thrust, or drive off; to repel.]

1. To drive from; to thrust back; hence, to deny; to repel a demand, charge, or accusation; to oppose; to resist; the effect of which is to maintain one's own claims.
2. To forbid; to prohibit; that is, to drive from, or back. Milton calls the forbidden fruit, the defended fruit. The use of wine in some places is defended by customs or laws. Temple. [This application is nearly obsolete.]
3. To drive back a foe or danger; to repel from any thing that which assails or annoys; to protect by opposition or resistance; to support or maintain; to prevent from being injured or destroyed. There arose, to defend Israel, Tola the son of Puah. Judges x.
4. To vindicate; to assert; to uphold; to maintain uninjured, by force or by argument; as, to defend our cause; to defend rights and privileges; to defend reputation.
5. To secure against attacks or evil; to fortify against danger or violence; to set obstacles to the approach of any thing that can annoy. A garden may be defended by a grove. A camp may be defended by a wall, a hill, or a river.

DE-FEND'A-BLE, a.

That may be defended.

DE-FEND'ANT, a. [French participle of defendre.]

1. Defensive; proper for defense. Shak.
2. Making defense; being in the character of a defendant. Wheaton's Rep.

DE-FEND'ANT, n.

1. He that defends against an assailant, or against the approach of evil or danger.
2. In law, the party that opposes a complaint, demand, or charge; he that is summoned into court, and defends, denies or opposes the demand or charge, and maintains his own right. It is applied to any party of whom a demand is made in court, whether the party denies and defends, or admits the claim and suffers a default.

DE-FEND'ED, pp.

Opposed; denied; prohibited; maintained by resistance; vindicated; preserved uninjured; secured.

DE-FEND'ER, n.

One who defends by opposition; one who maintains, supports, protects, or vindicates; an assertor; a vindicator, either by arms or by arguments; a champion or an advocate.

DE-FEND'ING, ppr.

Denying; opposing; resisting; forbidding; maintaining uninjured by force or by reason; securing from evil.

DE-FENS'A-TIVE, n.

Guard; defense; a bandage, plaster, or the like, to secure a wound from external injury. Johnson.

DE-FENSE', n. [defens'; L. defensio.]

1. Any thing that opposes attack, violence, danger, or injury; any thing that secures the person, the rights or the possessions of men; fortification; guard; protection; security. A wall, a parapet, a ditch, or a garrison, is the defense of a city or fortress. The Almighty is the defense of the righteous. Ps. lix.
2. Vindication; justification; apology; that which repels or disproves a charge or accusation. Men, brethren, fathers, hear ye my defense. Acts xxii.
3. In law, the defendant's reply to the plaintif's declaration, demands, or charges.
4. Prohibition. [Obs.] Temple.
5. Resistance; opposition. Shak.
6. The science of defending against enemies; military skill.
7. In fortification, a work that flanks another.