Word.ws English Dictionary

on the defensive

on the defensive prepositional phrase: prepared to defend or protect against criticism, attack or aggression.

Prepositional phrase

  1. Prepared to defend or protect against criticism, attack or aggression.
    • Last year, despite winning 34 of the legislature’s 57 seats with 47 per cent of the popular vote, the NDP was on the defensive almost from the start.1982 December 11, Frances Russell, “Economic performance buoys Pawley’s position”, in The Vancouver Sun (The Weekend Sun), Vancouver, BC, page A6
  2. defending; playing a defensive game
    • Brazil's greater quality and assurance in possession meant England spent much of the game on the defensive.2017 November 14, Phil McNulty, “England 0-0 Brazil”, in BBC News

Antonyms of on the defensive

  • on the attack

Questions about on the defensive

What does on the defensive mean?
On the defensive means prepared to defend or protect against criticism, attack or aggression.
What part of speech is on the defensive?
On the defensive is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on the defensive in the dictionary

  1. on the cusp
  2. on the cutting room floor
  3. on the daily
  4. on the debit side
  5. on the deck
  6. on the defensive
  7. on the district
  8. on the DL
  9. on the docket
  10. on the door
  11. on the dot

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on the defensive (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “on the defensive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_the_defensive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.