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View synonyms for

on the defensive



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Idioms and Phrases

Prepared for withstanding aggression or attack, as in The debate team's plan was to keep their opponents on the defensive , or This teacher put students on the defensive about their mistakes . [c. 1600]
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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Trump and his Republican sycophants should be asked repeatedly about the breakdowns, harms to people, and basically put them on the defensive.

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San Francisco 49ers: DT Kenneth Grant, Michigan — Not too long ago, the 49ers were loaded on the defensive line.

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It has also put federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre on the defensive in the early days of the country's short federal electoral race.

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And the edge they played with on the defensive side of the ball for nearly half the season simply hasn’t been as sharp this month.

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Greenland was already on the defensive about Trump's talk of a takeover, but he sent further shockwaves by implying he might ask to take the island with support of Nato, a military alliance of which Denmark is also a part.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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