on the defensive

Idioms and Phrases

Prepared for withstanding aggression or attack, as in The debate team's plan was to keep their opponents on the defensive , or This teacher put students on the defensive about their mistakes . [c. 1600]

Example Sentences

For the next two days, firefighters were on the defensive.

From Los Angeles Times

Opposing teams have targeted Knecht on the defensive end, and the results have been about as expected.

From Los Angeles Times

Generally, though, Knecht has played with the kind of competitiveness and toughness that can overcome some of the deficiencies on the defensive end.

From Los Angeles Times

She didn’t return the one against the Patriots for a score, but it did set up a touchdown pass from Emily Wagner to Meadow Moore in the first half that put Birmingham on the defensive.

From Los Angeles Times

She put Trump on the defensive for much of the night, baiting him into obsessing about crowd sizes at his rallies and fixating on an imagined crisis — Haitian immigrants eating household pets in one Ohio town.

From Los Angeles Times