Link Centre Dictionary

defensively

de·fen·si·vely

UK/dɪˈfɛnsɪvli/ US/dɪˈfɛnsɪvli/ uncommon

adverb

1.

in an apologetic and self-defensive manner

  • “I felt it better you should know,”
2.

in a defensive manner

  • “the general conviction that our side is in the right and acting defensively over what Russians call the German question and Americans the Berlin crisis”
Antonyms

Origin

From defensive + -ly.

Related words

Pertaining to

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.