DEFENSIVE in a Sentence

Learn DEFENSIVE from example sentences; some of them are from classic books. These examples are selected from a corpus with 300,000 sentences, including classic works and current mainstream media. Some sentences also link to their contexts.
151 example sentences for DEFENSIVE, such as:
1. The attorney for the defense challenged the juror.
2. The defense attorney phrased his summation at last.
3. He's currently the best defensive player on the team.
4. The defensive team nearly equipoised the offensive team.
5. The attorney for the defense challenged the evidence as hearsay.
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Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
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 Meanings and Examples of DEFENSIVE
defensive
 a.  intended or appropriate for defending against or deterring aggression or attack
 a.  attempting to justify or defend in speech or writing
Classic Sentence: (49 in 4 pages)
1  But Peter's words caused fierce resentment to burn in her breast, drove her to a defensive position, made her suddenly dislike her neighbors as much as she disliked the Yankees.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitchell
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXVIII
2  She could be as unscrupulous in fighting for herself as she was reckless in courting danger, and whatever came to her hand at such moments was likely to be used as a defensive missile.
House of Mirth By Edith Wharton
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 2: Chapter 3
3  A native warrior fights as he sleeps, without the protection of anything defensive.
The Last of the Mohicans By James Fenimore Cooper
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 27
4  Boulatruelle, although intoxicated, had a correct and lucid memory, a defensive arm that is indispensable to any one who is at all in conflict with legal order.
Les Misérables 5 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 5: CHAPTER I—IN WHICH THE TREE WITH THE ZINC PLASTER APPEARS...
5  As to d'Artagnan, he fought purely and simply on the defensive; and when he saw his adversary pretty well fatigued, with a vigorous side thrust sent his sword flying.
The Three Musketeers By Alexandre Dumas
Context  Highlight   In 31 ENGLISH AND FRENCH
6  But d'Artagnan, still keeping on the defensive, drew near to Kitty's door.
The Three Musketeers By Alexandre Dumas
Context  Highlight   In 37 MILADY'S SECRET
7  Mr. Micawber, I must observe, in his adaptation of himself to a new state of society, had acquired a bold buccaneering air, not absolutely lawless, but defensive and prompt.
David Copperfield By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 57. THE EMIGRANTS
8  They are all on the defensive, lose their tempers, as though they all want to make one feel something.
Anna Karenina 1 By Leo Tolstoy
Context  Highlight   In PART 1: Chapter 17
9  Now, though something might be said both ways, I nevertheless believe that artillery is beyond comparison more hurtful to him who stands on the defensive than to him who attacks.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo Machiavelli
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 2: CHAPTER XVII.
10  In the former case, he who is on the defensive is at once undone.
Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius By Niccolo Machiavelli
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 2: CHAPTER XVII.
11  Science becomes, in their hands, not only a defensive weapon, but still more frequently an offensive one; the one serves against all their physical sufferings, the other against all their enemies.
The Count of Monte Cristo By Alexandre Dumas
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 52. Toxicology.
12  I fancied it could not be very prejudicial to Mrs. Linton; unless she made it so afterwards, by assuming the defensive for her guest.
Wuthering Heights By Emily Bronte
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XI
13  Snowball, who had studied an old book of Julius Caesar's campaigns which he had found in the farmhouse, was in charge of the defensive operations.
Animal Farm By George Orwell
Context  Highlight   In Chapter IV
14  On returning to France, to the bosom of the great, strong, magnificent, peaceful, and glorious fatherland, I should have proclaimed her frontiers immutable; all future wars purely defensive, all aggrandizement antinational.
War and Peace 4 By Leo Tolstoy
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 10: CHAPTER XXXVIII
15  She could think of no defense for this last, for she knew Gerald was right.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitchell
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER II
Example Sentence: (102 in 7 pages)
1  The two parties entered into a defensive alliance with each other to win the election.
2  When asked to explain her behaviour, she gave a very defensive answer.
3  The defensive team nearly equipoised the offensive team.
4  He's currently the best defensive player on the team.
5  Even defensive battles distressed her, for the repulsion of enemy forces is never accomplished bloodlessly.
6  After breaking the ice with Mr. Putin at a meeting in Slovenia, Mr. Bush has agreed that the two issues, both offensive and defensive systems, go hand in hand.
7  It's important to have a multilayered, deep defensive posture and not to rely on a single perimeter approach to mitigate risk.
8  The attorney for the defense challenged the evidence as hearsay.
9  The defense attorney argued that the judge should declare a mistrial.
10  The defense attorney phrased his summation at last.
11  The attorney quickly turned his main defense argument on its head.
12  The attorney for the defense challenged the juror.
13  Looking relaxed and rested, Simpson answered friendly questions from his defense attorney for nearly three hours.
14  Goldston told jailers he was doing so because he wanted cigarettes, magazines and Los Angeles defense attorney Johnnie Cochran.
15  Morgan is a well-known defense attorney.