Defensive-war. See [War].
DEFIANCE. See [Challenge].
DEFICIENT, wanting to complete, as when a regiment, troop, or company has not its prescribed number of men.
DEFILE, in military affairs, a strait narrow passage, or road, through which the troops cannot march, otherwise than by making a small front, and filing off; so that the enemy may take an opportunity to stop, or harrass their march, and to charge them with so much the more advantage, because the rear cannot come up to the relief of the front.
To Defile, is to reduce divisions or platoons into a small front, in order to march through a defile; which is most conveniently done by quarter facing to either the right or left, and then covering to either right or left, and marching through by files, &c. It has been mentioned by a writer on military manœuvres, that defiling should be performed with rapidity, for this obvious reason, that a body of men which advances towards, or retires from an approaching enemy, may get into line, or into columns prepared for action, without loss of time. There may, however, be exceptions to this general rule. For instance, if the regiment is passing a bridge, either retreating or advancing, and the bridge is not firm, the pressure upon it must be as little as possible; because if it should break down, the regiment is suddenly separated, and the remainder may be cut to pieces. In passing a common defile the pace must be proportioned to the nature of the ground.
DEFILING a lodgment. See [Enfilade].
DEFORMER, Fr. in a military sense, signifies to break: as déformer une colonne, to break a column.
DEFY. See [Challenge].
DEGAST, 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 touch-hole of a cannon; called a priming wire.