different between maintain vs defend

English

Etymology

From Middle English mayntenen, from Old French maintenir, from Late Latin man?tene?, man?ten?re (“I support”), from Latin man? (“with the hand”) + tene? (“I hold”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /me?n?te?n/, /m?n?te?n/
• Rhymes: -e?n

Verb

maintain (third-person singular simple present maintains, present participle maintaining, simple past and past participle maintained)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To support (someone), to back up or assist (someone) in an action. [14^th-19^thc.]
2. To keep up; to preserve; to uphold (a state, condition etc.). [from 14^thc.]
3. To declare or affirm (a clause) to be true; to assert. [from 15^thc.]

Antonyms

• (to keep up): abandon

Derived terms

• maintainability

Related terms

Translations

Anagrams

• amanitin

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