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defensiveness
[ dih-fen-siv-nis ]
noun
- excessive concern with guarding against the real or imagined threat of criticism, injury to one’s ego, exposure of one’s shortcomings, etc.:
Employee defensiveness may be reduced by moving the focus of the conversation from the person to the behaviors.
- the condition of being abnormally sensitive to certain stimuli, leading to avoidance or overreaction:
Sensory defensiveness often takes the form of increased negative reactivity to noises from fans, clocks, car doors, etc.
- the state or condition of being prepared to defend against attack from an enemy:
A military adviser’s job involves improving a nation's army and overall defensiveness against foreign attackers.
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Other Words From
- non·de·fen·sive·ness noun
- o·ver·de·fen·sive·ness noun
- sem·i·de·fen·sive·ness noun
- un·de·fen·sive·ness noun
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Word History and Origins
Origin of defensiveness1
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Example Sentences
Yet Manhattan has none of the defensiveness that seems to be peeking around the corners of this film.
Back to The Knocks, still awash in denial and defensiveness.
Any Jew who tries to justify this attack or the apathy expressed by the bystanders is suffering from pathological defensiveness.
It spoke of insecurity rather than control, defensiveness instead of dynamism.
Then read the mountains of judgment, scorn, bragging, critiquing, and defensiveness that each debate seems to produce.
The directness of his challenge was startling, and roused in her a belated defensiveness.
But she had by instinct a wary defensiveness, and she was on constant guard.
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