- maintain
- maintain, assert, defend, vindicate, justify are comparable when they mean to uphold as true, right, just, valid, or worthy of notice or acceptance in the face of opposition or indifference.Maintain implies a firmness of conviction. When this implication is the only one, maintain usually means to argue in the spirit of one who does not admit any weakness in his contention{
the artisan, for example, ranks no doubt lower than the professional man; but no one maintains that he is a different kind of being— Dickin-son
}{there is ... a Philosophic Doctrine—. . . I know that many serious people believe it—which maintains that all men, in spite of appearances and pretensions . . . live alike for pleasure— L. P. Smith
}Often, however, the term additionally implies persistency or insistency in upholding in deñance of all opposition{before this court ought to intervene the case should be of serious magnitude clearly and fully proved, and the principle to be applied should be one which the court is prepared deliberately to maintain against all considerations on the other side— Justice Holmes
}Assert (see also ASSERT 1) so strongly implies a determination to make others accept or recognize what one puts forward as the truth, or as a claim, or as a right, that it often suggests aggressiveness or obtrusiveness{the provision of the constitution never has been understood to embrace other contracts, than those which . .. confer rights which may be asserted in a court of justice— John Marshall
}But assert does not always imply the use of argument to force conviction or recognition{anyone . . . can feel the sustained dignity of the sculptor's work, which is asserted with all the emphasis he could put into it— Henry Adams
}{on the whole New Zealand was lavish with money and attention, and used force only to assert her sovereignty— Heiser
}Defend implies a maintaining in the face of attack with the intention of demonstrating the truth, rightness, or propriety of what is questioned; thus, one defends a thesis who, as a candidate for a degree, submits himself to examiners who assail the weak or dubious points of his argument{the independence of the Supreme Court of the United States should be defended at all costs— Lippmann
}Defend, in this sense, does not imply, as it so often implies in its more common sense (see DEFEND 1), that the defender is in a weak or dubious position; however it seldom suggests as much aggressiveness as does assert and often connotes the aim of an apologist{I have not adopted my faith in order to defend my views of conduct— T. S. Eliot
}Vindicate (see also EXCULPATE) implies an attempt, usually a successful attempt, at defense or assertion. It presupposes that whatever is being defended or asserted has been or is capable of being challenged, questioned, denied, or contemned. When the emphasis is on defense, then argument or something which has the force of argument is usually implied, and an aim not only to make one's point but to confute and confound one's opponents is often connoted{writers who vindicated our hereditary House of Lords against a certain Parliament Act— Quiller-Couch
}{the view of the informed and disinterested men turned out to be almost completely wrong, while the relatively uninformed . . . were vindicated on all counts— Rovere
}When the emphasis is upon assertion, vindicate usually implies an effort to resist triumphantly the force of encroachment or interference or to overwhelm those who deny or doubt, not so much by argument as by appropriate action{arise, and vindicate Thy Glory; free thy people from their yoke!— Milton
}{what was it that stood in his way? His unfortunate timidity! He wished to vindicate himself in some way, to assert his manhood— Joyce
}Justify (see also EXPLAIN 2 , JUSTIFY 3) implies that the thing concerned can no longer be opposed or ignored because it has been conclusively shown to be true, valid, or proper by irrefutable arguments or on inescapable grounds, such as its consequences or its successful operation{if the Germans are to justify the high claims they make for Lessing as a critic, they must rest them on other grounds than his intellectual originality— Babbitt
}{fate persists in justifying the harsh generalizations of Puritan morals— Bennett
}{it isn't by the materials you use that your claim to originality will stand justified or condemned; it is solely by the thing you do with them— Lowes
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
