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{%type%} Definitions

WordNet 3.0Copyright Princeton University
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Short "hint"

adv. - In an apologetic but protective manner.

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Usage examples (39)
  • The general conviction that our side is in the right and acting defensively over what Russians call the German question and Americans the Berlin crisis
  • `I felt it better you should know,' said Sir Cedric defensively
  • In the second half, our guys got in defensively to them.
  • They packed in defensively, refusing to allow many man-to-man chances.
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The Open Dictionary of English is a collaborative project, based on Open Source materials, LearnThat resources, and partner APIs.
We give special thanks to our LearnThat volunteers, as well as Princeton University and Wiktionary for their Open Source word data. We're also grateful for the support given by Google, Wordnik.com, Dictionary.com, Stands4.com and YouTube, OEDILF.com, Kylescholz.com, Best-Practice.com, Forvo.com, as well as the generous Creative Commons community.