parry

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• intransitive verb To deflect or ward off (a fencing thrust, for example).
• intransitive verb To deflect, evade, or avoid.
• intransitive verb To deflect or ward off a thrust or blow.
• noun The deflecting or warding off of a thrust or blow, as in fencing.
• noun An evasive answer or action.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A defensive movement in fencing.
• noun A fencing-bout; hence, a brilliant attack and defense of any kind.
• To turn aside; ward off: as, to parry a thrust or a blow, or an inquisitive question.
• To avoid; evade.
• To act on the defensive, as in warding off a thrust or an argument; fence.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• intransitive verb To ward off, evade, or turn aside something, as a blow, argument, etc.
• noun A warding off of a thrust or blow, as in sword and bayonet exercises or in boxing; hence, figuratively, a defensive movement in debate or other intellectual encounter.
• transitive verb To ward off; to stop, or to turn aside.
• transitive verb To avoid; to shift or put off; to evade.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun A defensive or deflective action; an act of parrying.
• noun fencing A simple defensive action designed to deflect an attack, performed with the forte of the blade.
• verb To avoid, deflect, or ward off (an attack).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun (fencing) blocking a lunge or deflecting it with a circular motion of the sword
• verb avoid or try to avoid fulfilling, answering, or performing (duties, questions, or issues)
• verb impede the movement of (an opponent or a ball)
• noun a return punch (especially by a boxer)