What's the difference between defend and repel?

Defend


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To ward or fend off; to drive back or away; to repel.
  • (v. t.) To prohibit; to forbid.
  • (v. t.) To repel danger or harm from; to protect; to secure against; attack; to maintain against force or argument; to uphold; to guard; as, to defend a town; to defend a cause; to defend character; to defend the absent; -- sometimes followed by from or against; as, to defend one's self from, or against, one's enemies.
  • (v. t.) To deny the right of the plaintiff in regard to (the suit, or the wrong charged); to oppose or resist, as a claim at law; to contest, as a suit.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The Wales international and Port Vale defender Clayton McDonald both admitted having sex with the victim, – McDonald was found not guilty of the same charge.
  • (2) "What has made that worse is the disingenuous way the force has defended their actions.
  • (3) It arguably became too comfortable for Rodgers' team, with complacency and slack defending proving a dangerous brew.
  • (4) Joe, meanwhile, defends her right to say "negro" whenever she wants.
  • (5) Whittingdale also defended the right of MPs to use privilege to speak out on public interest matters.
  • (6) Madonna has defended her description of the leak of 13 unfinished demos from her forthcoming album as “a form of terrorism” and “artistic rape”.
  • (7) After an introductory note on primary preventive intervention of breast cancer during adulthood, the author defends and extends a hypothesis that relates most of the known risk factors for this disease to the development of preneoplastic lesions in the breast.
  • (8) Defendants on legal aid will no longer be able to choose their solicitor.
  • (9) All 17 candidates are going to be participating in debate night and I think that’s a wonderful opportunity Reince Priebus Republican party officials have defended the decision to limit participation, pointing out that the chasing pack will get a chance to debate separately before the main event.
  • (10) In mitigation, Gareth Jones, defending, said: "The first comment [he] wrote was in relation to Fabrice Muamba.
  • (11) "The Texas attorney general's office will continue to defend the Texas legislature's decision to prohibit abortion providers and their affiliates from receiving taxpayer dollars through the Women's Health Program."
  • (12) The philosopher defended his actions by referring to Pierre Bourdieu's concept of symbolic violence, naturally enough, but it didn't wash with HR.
  • (13) Later, Lucas, also a former party leader, strongly defended Bennett, saying it was a “bad day for Natalie” but there was also “kind of a gloating tone that strikes one as having something to do with her being a woman in there too”.
  • (14) Free speech has protected hate speech, and opponents of censorship have consistantly defended the rights of unscrupulous populists and incendiarists.
  • (15) "You could understand why I need another central defender," Mourinho said afterwards.
  • (16) The concept of a head of state as a "defender" of any sort of faith is uncomfortable in an age when religion is again acquiring a habit of militancy.
  • (17) Abe Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League, a vigorous defender of Israel, called the speech “ill-advised”.
  • (18) Everton ended with 10 men after Seamus Coleman limped off with all three substitutes deployed but there was no late flourish from a visiting team who, with Fernando replacing Kevin De Bruyne after the Irish defender’s departure, appeared content to settle for 1-2.
  • (19) "I never expected to get 100 caps and have the reception I did," said the Chelsea defender.
  • (20) He is shadow home secretary and will have to defend himself.

Repel


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To drive back; to force to return; to check the advance of; to repulse as, to repel an enemy or an assailant.
  • (v. t.) To resist or oppose effectually; as, to repel an assault, an encroachment, or an argument.
  • (v. i.) To act with force in opposition to force impressed; to exercise repulsion.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The effects of common repellents on the membrane fluidity of Escherichia coli were measured by the fluorescence polarization of the probe 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene in liposomes made of lipids extracted from the bacteria and in membrane vesicles.
  • (2) It is suggested that the capacity of large doses of L3T4+ cells to protect mice against lethal GVHD is a reflection of T helper function: the cellular immunity provided by the donor L3T4+ cells enables the host to repel pathogens entering through damaged mucosal surfaces, with the result that GVHD becomes sublethal.
  • (3) Repellent effect of the Mannich bases (methoxyphenol derivatives) on Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and Xenopsylla cheopis fleas was revealed under laboratory and field conditions.
  • (4) We have recently prepared a carbon fibre micro-electrode (mCFE) which specifically pretreated and coated with Nafion (a negatively charged polymer which repels acids such as 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC)) allows the direct selective detection of the oxidation of DA and 5-HT in nanomolar concentration in vitro and that of extracellular basal levels of cerebral 5-HT in vivo (peak B at +240 mV).
  • (5) A couple of years later, he patented a method of producing a water-repellent textile.
  • (6) These compounds possess insecticidal and repellent properties.
  • (7) Tory toffs repelling undesirable immigrants, providing better schools, using welfare reform as a pathway to work, clearing vandals, yobs and drunks from the streets and standing up to our masters in Brussels would be very popular, and the word would soon be forgotten.
  • (8) Repellent addition has previously been shown to stimulate MCP demethylation.
  • (9) Of 33 compounds tested, 8 were repellents for B. bacteriovorus strain UKi2: n-caproate, alanine, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, cobaltous chloride, and hydronium ion.
  • (10) The CDC and other health agencies have been operating for months on the assumption that Zika causes brain defects, and they have been warning pregnant women to use mosquito repellent, avoid travel to Zika-stricken regions and either abstain from sex or rely on condoms.
  • (11) But maybe, just maybe, they won’t, for they represent real forces and articulate real passions that Labour and the Conservatives, and now the Lib Dems, have so far utterly failed to repel.
  • (12) The treatment involved the use of repelling magnets for the distalization of the upper right molar which was in a class II relationship.
  • (13) The most important stabilizing factor for the intramolecular proton transfer is the zinc ion, which lowers the pKa of zinc-bound water and electrostatically repels the proton.
  • (14) Both sexes were attracted to the odor of R-(-)-carvone and repelled by the odor of (+)-citronellol.
  • (15) The paint whooshed down through the freshwater, but as soon as it hit the saltwater it was repelled, spreading out laterally as if the pigment had hit an invisible horizon.
  • (16) In bacterial chemotaxis, transmembrane receptor proteins detect attractants and repellents in the medium and send intracellular signals that control motility.
  • (17) Iain Lobban, the director of GCHQ, the government's eavesdropping and encrypting agency, last week used his first public speech to call for an aggressive approach to cyber attacks, and warned of the dangers of adopting the sort of defensive strategy famously symbolised by France's Maginot line, which was meant to repel the Germans and failed.
  • (18) 7.53pm BST Pedant repellant Style guide: GEORGE: What is Holland?
  • (19) Current control measures, stressing the use of mosquito nets, insect repellent, and residual insecticides designed primarily for the less mobile population of rice-farming communities are less effective among more mobile people.
  • (20) Soldiers damaged three of the vessels before clashes in which the militants were eventually repelled.