DEFENDING Synonyms: 85 Similar and Opposite Words

defending

verb

present participle of defend

as in protecting

to drive danger or attack away from a solemn oath to defend the mother country at any cost

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in justifying

to continue to declare to be true or proper despite opposition or objections she will pigheadedly defend any claim regardless of all evidence to the contrary

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of defending The new Indiana quarterback was a three-year starter at TCU and now takes over the defending champs. — Dan Santaromita, New York Times, 25 Aug. 2026 Clark, a second-round draft pick by the defending Super Bowl champions, was injured on Seattle’s first defensive snap in a 19-16 loss to the Tennessee Titans in Nashville. — Jim Barnes, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 24 Aug. 2026 The Royals on Tuesday will open a three-game series against the defending American League champion Blue Jays in Toronto. — Pete Grathoff, Kansas City Star, 24 Aug. 2026 Lane Kiffin wasted no time Monday defending LSU’s decision to recruit players with NFL experience, or at least those who have recently participated in NFL camps. — Trey Wallace Outkick, FOXNews.com, 24 Aug. 2026 Over the past several years, South Korea has emerged as a world-class military power – not quite on the level of the US or China, but certainly capable of defending itself against North Korea. — Brad Lendon, CNN Money, 19 Aug. 2026 To flip control of the Senate, where Republicans currently hold 53 seats, Democrats would have to win four seats while defending a handful of their own. — Kaia Hubbard, CBS News, 19 Aug. 2026 President Harry Truman’s courageous decision to support the United Nations in defending the South against invasion from the North laid the foundation for today’s remarkably successful Republic of Korea. — Arthur I. Cyr, Chicago Tribune, 18 Aug. 2026 Separately, Meta is also defending itself in Tennessee against allegations that its Instagram platform causes mental health harms to young users. — Medora Lee, USA Today, 18 Aug. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for defending

Verb

This is more than a sophisticated arms race aimed at repelling threats and protecting borders.

— Kamal Ahmed, Fortune, 27 Aug. 2026
Con, where the company is to demonstrate how its offerings are protecting businesses from agents going rogue, like the situation where an OpenAI model hacked into a company looking for answers on how to solve a problem in the test environment.

— Paulina Likos, CNBC, 27 Aug. 2026

Definition of protecting

Verb

Former grand mufti Ahmad Badreddine Hassoun, an Assad loyalist who was vocally in support of the government's policies, was convicted of inciting violence and justifying murder.

— ABC News, ABC News, 24 Aug. 2026
The second, less visible but arguably more consequential, is that the capability gap justifying dependence on closed frontier labs has nearly disappeared.

— Pawel Rzeszucinski, Forbes.com, 21 Aug. 2026

Definition of justifying

Verb

Organizations must extend hygiene to AI systems by securing training data, confirming model integrity, safeguarding prompts and outputs, preventing model poisoning and adversarial attacks, and controlling how AI accesses company data.

— Chuck Brooks, Forbes.com, 22 Aug. 2026
Unlike JPMorgan or Club name Wells Fargo , whose core business is collecting deposits and issuing consumer and commercial loans, BNY’s main focus is servicing, safeguarding and moving financial assets for institutions.

— Jeff Marks, CNBC, 20 Aug. 2026

Definition of safeguarding

Verb

The few remaining workers maintaining the plant, however, received those benefits upon ratification.

— Jackie Charniga, Freep.com, 31 Aug. 2026
Icelandic voters rejected the measure amid widespread concern over maintaining control over fishing rights, a backbone of the country’s economy.

— Lauren Morganbesser, semafor.com, 30 Aug. 2026

Definition of maintaining

Verb

For weeks, migrants in the Spanish territory of Ceuta had gathered on a beach away from the city center, sleeping on cardboard sheets, under reed huts and guarding their few possessions in tattered plastic bags.

— ABC News, ABC News, 20 Aug. 2026
World Liberty is celebrating the major milestone, while critics worry this is a new wrinkle on the classic case of the fox guarding the henhouse that will give corporations and foreign actors a new way to stealthily curry favor with the White House.

— Matt Egan, CNN Money, 17 Aug. 2026

Definition of guarding

Verb

During the May 21 vote, many board members lamented that their hands were tied by state law and a 3rd District Appellate Court ruling upholding the state’s solar siting regulations.

— Alicia Fabbre, Chicago Tribune, 22 Aug. 2026
His appeals were rejected in 2016 by a Supreme Court decision upholding the death penalty.

— CBS News, CBS News, 21 Aug. 2026

Definition of upholding

Verb

The bridge’s 22 piers were seismically retrofitted from the water upward in 2002, but the underwater infrastructure supporting the piers hasn’t been renovated or upgraded since the bridge opened to traffic in 1969.

— David Garrick, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Aug. 2026
Fewer workers are splitting the cost of supporting a larger, longer-living retired population.

— Nick Lichtenberg, Fortune, 26 Aug. 2026

Definition of supporting

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“Defending.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/defending. Accessed 1 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of defending

verb

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