0 in a way that protects someone or something against attack or injury: --
1 in a way that shows you feel you are being criticized and do not like it: --
2 in a way that is intended to prevent the opposing player or players from scoring points, goals, etc.: --
3 acting in a way that shows feelings of being criticized and the need to quickly explain : --
Some of the theoretical and empirical work conducted to date suggests that women with unresolved loss may be defensively excluding threatening information about themselves and their relationships.
Bates argues that pre-modern societies, based on family networks, engage in the private provision of violence (defensively and aggressively) and that this is effective but inefficient.
Some people were initially reluctant to make negative judgements about family members particularly their children or spoke defensively indicating an unwillingness to admit that their relatives were neglectful.
In essence, ventral structures appear to monitor the expectation of further negative events, thus managing self-control defensively rather than opportunistically.
Unlike the common opinion, however, it is still uttered defensively and shows the signs of dispute in the prior social discourse.
If an event threatens to reduce the power of advantaged groups to control the agenda, these groups are likely to respond defensively to focusing events.
Many mapping projects were (and are) instigated as a means of controlling (defensively or offensively) a parcel of land and its inhabitants.
Attachmentrelated information that, as a result of its (affective) content, does not fit the expectancies is defensively excluded.
