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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To keep from being damaged, attacked, stolen, or injured; guard. See Synonyms at defend.
  2. v. To help (domestic industry) with tariffs or quotas on imported goods.
  3. v. To assure payment of (drafts or notes, for example) by setting aside funds.
  4. v. Sports To attempt to hold (a lead) by playing careful defense and avoiding risky plays.
  5. v. Baseball To swing at a pitch near (home plate) in order to avoid being called out on strikes.
  6. v. Baseball To swing at a pitch so as to give (a base runner) a better chance of advancing.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To cover or shield from danger, harm, damage, trespass, exposure, insult, temptation, or the like; defend; guard; preserve in safety: applied with a wide range, both literally and figuratively, actively and passively.
  2. To act as protector or regent for. Compare protector, 2 .
  3. Specifically, in political economics, to guard or strengthen against foreign competition by means of a protective duty.
  4. Synonyms Defend, Shelter, etc. (see keep), screen, secure.

Wiktionary

  1. v. To keep safe; to defend; to guard; to prevent harm coming to.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To cover or shield from danger or injury; to defend; to guard; to preserve in safety.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. shield from danger, injury, destruction, or damage
  2. v. use tariffs to favor domestic industry

Etymologies

  1. Middle English protecten, from Latin prōtegere, prōtēct- : prō-, in front; see pro-1 + tegere, to cover; see (s)teg- in Indo-European roots.

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‘protect’ has been looked up 1728 times, loved by 1 person, added to 7 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 11.