Word family noun defence/defense defendant defender defensiveness adjective defenceless/defenseless defensible ≠ indefensible defensive verb defend adverb defensibly ≠ indefensibly defensively
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdefencelessde‧fence‧less British English, defenseless American English /dɪˈfensləs/ adjective WEAKweak and unable to protect yourself from attack or harm a defenceless old ladyExamples from the Corpus
defenceless• If she had allowed him in, she would have been defenceless.• He closed the door closed behind him, leaving her cruelly defenceless against his bitter attack.• Not only were they hungry, but they also felt defenceless against more allied bombing.• Then defenceless, all we could do was fight the panic and slowly slip away.• Afterwards, he sat and watched her: drinking in the picture of her despoiled, defenceless beauty.• Small but dangerously exciting trickles of pleasure were still winging their way through her virtually defenceless body.• No one is doing anything to help these poor defenceless children.• The slim man had seized the whip, and after two more murderous kicks, commenced to thrash the defenceless coachman.• When one finds defenceless prey, others will soon come.• In the first weeks of the war, dozens of defenceless ships were sunk by submarines.• Hutt panicked and struck again and again and again until his defenceless victim fell to the floor. 