English Explanatory Dictionary

defense mechanism

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A psychological strategy used unconsciously by people to cope with harmful or stressful situations.
  2. An automatic reaction of the body against foreign antibodies.

Word forms

defense mechanism defense mechanisms defence mechanism

Etymology

Calque of German Abwehrmechanismus, a concept in the Freudian model.

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on D Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary