(redirected from Defenders)
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

DEFENDER, canon law. The name by which the defendant or respondent is known in the ecclesiastical courts.

References in classic literature ?
Again and again the Arabs charged, at last forming a stationary circle about the little fortress, and outside the effective range of the defenders' arrows.
A dozen of them fell to the arrows of the defenders; but the majority reached the door.
they hurl the defenders from the battlements they throw them into the moat O men, if ye be indeed men, spare them that can resist no longer!''
``No,'' replied Rebecca, ``The Templar has destroyed the plank on which they crossed few of the defenders escaped with him into the castle the shrieks and cries which you hear tell the fate of the others Alas!
Those who were hauled up within reach of the power-ful clutches of the defenders had the nooses snatched from them and were catapulted back through the first line to the second, where they were seized and killed by the simple expedient of a single powerful closing of mighty fangs upon the backs of their necks.
But the arrows of the invaders were taking a much heavier toll than the nooses of the defenders and I fore-saw that it was but a matter of time before Hooja's forces must conquer unless the brute-men changed their tactics, or the cave men tired of the battle.
Now the inhabitants and defenders of Belle-Isle know nothing of this arrest.
The wood had been soaked in oil, for in an instant it was ablaze, and a long, hissing, yellow flame licked over the heads of the defenders, and drove them further up to the first floor of the keep.
The former now turned their attention upon the new arrival, for they saw her defenders could soon be overcome and that from her deck they could command the deck of the better-manned ship.
She realized that if she said a word about his not going to the battle (she knew he enjoyed the thought of the impending engagement) he would say something about men, honor, and the fatherland- something senseless, masculine, and obstinate which there would be no contradicting, and her plans would be spoiled; and so, hoping to arrange to leave before then and take Petya with her as their protector and defender, she did not answer him, but after dinner called the count aside and implored him with tears to take her away quickly, that very night if possible.
The warm defender of the sacredness of the family re- lation is the same that scatters whole families,--sun- dering husbands and wives, parents and children, sisters and brothers,--leaving the hut vacant, and the hearth desolate.