different between defend vs offend

English

Etymology

From Middle English defenden, from Old French deffendre (Modern French défendre), from Latin d?fend? (“to ward off”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *g??en-.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d??f?nd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /d??f?nd/, /di?f?nd/, /d??f?nd/
• Rhymes: -?nd

Verb

defend (third-person singular simple present defends, present participle defending, simple past and past participle defended)

1. (transitive) To ward off attacks against; to fight to protect; to guard.
2. (transitive) To support by words or writing; to vindicate, talk in favour of.
3. (transitive, law) To make legal defence of; to represent (the accused).
4. (sports) To focus one's energies and talents on preventing opponents from scoring, as opposed to focusing on scoring.
5. (sports) To attempt to retain a title, or attempt to reach the same stage in a competition as one did in the previous edition of that competition.
6. (poker slang) To call a raise from the big blind.
7. (transitive, obsolete) To ward off, repel (an attack or attacker).
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.viii:

     The vertue is, that neither steele, nor stone / The stroke thereof from entrance may defend […].

8. (transitive, obsolete) To prevent, to keep (from doing something).
9. (transitive, intransitive, obsolete) To prohibit, forbid.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:defend

Antonyms

• attack

Related terms

• defender
• defense, defence
• defensive

Translations

Anagrams

• fended

English

Etymology

From Middle French offendre, from Latin offend? (“strike, blunder, commit an offense”), from ob- (“against”) + *fend? (“strike”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??f?nd/
• Hyphenation: of?fend
• Rhymes: -?nd

Verb

offend (third-person singular simple present offends, present participle offending, simple past and past participle offended)

1. (transitive) To hurt the feelings of; to displease; to make angry; to insult.
   • 1995 September, The Playboy Interview: Cindy Crawford, Playboy

     One day my girlfriend, her boyfriend and I were sunbathing topless because that's Barbados - you can wear nothing if you want. And the Pepsi guy walks up and with my agent to meet us for lunch. I wondered if I should put on my top because I have a business relationship with him. I didn't want him to get offended because the rest of the beach had seen me with my top off.

2. (intransitive) To feel or become offended; to take insult.

3. (transitive) To physically harm, pain.

4. (transitive) To annoy, cause discomfort or resent.

5. (intransitive) To sin, transgress divine law or moral rules.
6. (transitive) To transgress or violate a law or moral requirement.
7. (obsolete, transitive, archaic, biblical) To cause to stumble; to cause to sin or to fall.
   • 1896, Adolphus Frederick Schauffler, Select Notes on the International Sunday School Lessons, W. A. Wilde company, Page 161,

     "If any man offend not (stumbles not, is not tripped up) in word, the same is a perfect man."

   • New Testament, Matthew 5:29 (Sermon on the Mount),

     "If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out."

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:offend.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:offend

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Further reading

• offend in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• offend in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• end off