Meaning of “put on” in “the accuser can be put on the defensive”

Question

Reading a text about liars and their behaviour, I encountered the following sentences:

It is hard to prove there was a harsh tone or angry expression. The accuser can be put on the defensive. "You have heard it that way. There was no anger in my voice".

I failed to find what "put on" could be in this context. The only meaning that would make a little sense would be "to pretend". Also, I think it is a passive voice; but I may be wrong, put has the same form for present, past and past participle.

I think it could mean: The liar can try or pretend) to be defensive to the accuser.

And I have an additional question: As mentioned in the text, "You heard it that way". Is this more like "You heard it with your own ears, there was no anger" or "It is just you who heard it THAT way, there was no anger"?

Answer 1

In this instance the meaning would be:

The accuser can be made to feel like they need to defend themselves.

Which may be an unexpected scenario that they hadn't prepared for.

Answer 2

Instead of thinking of "put on" as some kind of phrasal verb:

The accusser can be put on / the defensive.

You should divide the meaning chunks this way:

The accuser can be put / on the defensive.

Or, for the sake of making it clearer, you can indeed get rid of the passive structure first:

Somebody can put the accuser on the defensive. 

As you can see, now the pattern in the sentence is:

put somebody on the defensive

From the Free Dictionary, this is the meaning of the phrase:

on the defensive in an attitude or position of defence, as in being ready to reject criticism

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As for your second question, the sentence "You have heard it that way" means your second interpretation i.e. It is just you who heard it that way, there was no anger.

Answer 3

Put on the defensive - placed on the defensive.

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From the OP (Original Poster)

The accusser (sic) can be put on the defensive. (There was a spelling mistake in the original question.)

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The best means of defence is attack.

The accuser can be placed on the defensive.

The accuser can be forced to defend themselves.

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From the OP (Original Poster)

And additional question: As mentioned in the text, "You heard it that way". Is it more like "You heard it with your own ears, there was no anger" or like "It is just you who heard it THAT way, there was no anger."

Are you imagining things?

"Put on the mask", take on the role, pretend to be the aggrieved person.

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"Put on" is an interesting expression. When I first saw the question the first thing that occurred to me was 'put on the style'.

I think that you are right in saying that 'put on' means 'pretend'. It does not necessarily mean that someone is lying;'Put on a mask'.

Margaret Thatcher's son had an expression that he used a lot; 'Put up or Shut up'.

Main Entry: put on  [n. poot-on, -awn; adj. poot-on, -awn] ..

Part of Speech: verb..

Definition: pretend..

Synonyms: act, affect, assume, bluff, confound, confuse, counterfeit, deceive, don, fake, feign, make believe, masquerade, playact, pose, pull, put on a front, put on an act, sham, simulate, strike, take on, trick

Antonyms: be truthful..

http://thesaurus.com/browse/put+on

"Put on your glad rags".

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/glad_rags

It is a little unfair to use an expression like 'glad rags' which is very rarely used.