Defense, Lines of. Are the distances between the salient angle of the bastion and the opposite flank; that is, the faces produced to the flanks.
Defense, Passing. Is chiefly confined to inundations, and is effected by letting out water in such a manner that the level ground which lies round a fortified town or place may be entirely overflowed, and become an inert stagnant pool.
Defensive. A force is said to be on the defensive, or to assume a defensive attitude, when it takes up a position to receive an attack.
Defensive War. See [War, Defensive].
Defilading, or Defilement. The art of arranging the plan and profile of works, so that their lines shall not be liable to enfilade, nor their interior to plunging or reverse fire.
Defile. A narrow passage, or road, through which troops cannot march otherwise than by making a small front and filing off.
Defile, To. To reduce a body of troops into a small front, in order to march through a defile; also, to defilade.
Deformer (Fr.). In a military sense, signifies to break; as, deformer une colonne, to break a column.
Dégat (Fr.). The laying waste an enemy’s country, particularly in the neighborhood of a town which an army attempts to reduce by famine, or which refuses to pay military exactions.
Degorgeoir (Fr.). A sort of steel pricker used in examining the vent of a cannon; a priming wire.