Answer — Defs

01 v. t. To speak in defense against; to reply to in defense; as, to answer a charge; to answer an accusation.

imp. & p. p. Answered; p. pr. & vb. n. Answering

1.
To speak in defense against; to reply to in defense; as, to answer a charge; to answer an accusation.
2.
To speak or write in return to, as in return to a call or question, or to a speech, declaration, argument, or the like; to reply to (a question, remark, etc.); to respond to.
“She answers him as if she knew his mind.” — Shak.

“So spake the apostate angel, though in pain: . . . And him thus answered soon his bold compeer.” — Milton.
3.
To respond to satisfactorily; to meet successfully by way of explanation, argument, or justification, and the like; to refute.
“No man was able to answer him a word.” — Matt. xxii. 46.

“These shifts refuted, answer thine appellant.” — Milton.

“The reasoning was not and could not be answered.” — Macaulay.
4.
To be or act in return or response to.
“This proud king . . . studies day and night To answer all the debts he owes unto you.” — Shak.
5.
To render account to or for.
“I will . . . send him to answer thee.” — Shak.
6.
To atone; to be punished for.
“And grievously hath Cæzar answered it.” — Shak.
7.
To be opposite to; to face.
“The windows answering each other, we could just discern the glowing horizon them.” — Gilpin.
8.
To be or act an equivalent to, or as adequate or sufficient for; to serve for; to repay.[R.]
“Money answereth all things.” — Eccles. x. 19.
9.
To be or act in accommodation, conformity, relation, or proportion to; to correspond to; to suit.
“Weapons must needs be dangerous things, if they answered the bulk of so prodigious a person.” — Swift.

02 v. i. To speak or write by way of return (originally, to a charge), or in reply; to make response.

1.
To speak or write by way of return (originally, to a charge), or in reply; to make response.
“There was no voice, nor any that answered.” — 1 Kings xviii. 26.
2.
To make a satisfactory response or return.
“Let his neck answer for it, if there is any martial law.” — Shak.
3.
To be or act in return.
“Do the strings answer to thy noble hand?” — Dryden.
4.
To be opposite, or to act in opposition.
“That the time may have all shadow and silence in it, and the place answer to convenience.” — Shak.

“If this but answer to my just belief, I 'll remember you.” — Shak.

“As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.” — Prov. xxvii. 19.

03 n. A reply to a charge; a defense.

1.
A reply to a charge; a defense.
“At my first answer no man stood with me.” — 2 Tim. iv. 16.
2.
Something said or written in reply to a question, a call, an argument, an address, or the like; a reply.
“A soft answer turneth away wrath.” — Prov. xv. 1.

“I called him, but he gave me no answer.” — Cant. v. 6.
3.
Something done in return for, or in consequence of, something else; a responsive action.
“Great the slaughter is Here made by the Roman; great the answer be Britons must take.” — Shak.
4.
A solution, the result of a mathematical operation; as, the answer to a problem.
5.
A counter-statement of facts in a course of pleadings; a confutation of what the other party has alleged; a responsive declaration by a witness in reply to a question. In Equity, it is the usual form of defense to the complainant's charges in his bill.(Law)

Syn. Reply; rejoinder; response. See Reply.