▪ I. † protect, ppl. a. Obs.
[ad. L. prōtect-us, pa. pple. of prōteg-ĕre to cover in front, protect, defend, f. prō, pro-1 + teg-ĕre to cover.]
Protected. (Const. as pa. pple.)
| 1432–50 tr. Higden (Rolls) I. 111 Like as a doȝhter is protecte [orig. protegitur] of the moder, and subiecte to her. 1544 tr. Littleton's Tenures (1574) 41 b, The things by which a man is protect & holpen. |
▪ II. protect, v.
(prəʊˈtɛkt)
[f. ppl. stem of L. prōteg-ĕre: see prec. Cf. rare obs. F. protecter (15th c. in Godef.).]
1. a. trans. To defend or guard from injury or danger; to shield from attack or assault; to support, assist, or afford immunity to, esp. against any inimical agency; to preserve intact, or from encroachment, invasion, annoyance, or insult; to keep safe, take care of; to extend patronage to. Also absol.
| 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 12 b, Whome god almyghty..protected, defended, saued, and gouerned. 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, i. iii. 5 The Lord protect him..Iesu blesse him. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. ii. xviii. 91 To every man remaineth..the right of protecting himselfe. 1750 Gray Elegy xx, These bones from insult to protect. 1793 Burke Corr. (1844) IV. 183, I trust that Providence protects you and your illustrious brother for some great purpose. 1857 Buckle Civiliz. I. xi. 646 Whenever a government undertakes to protect intellectual pursuits, it will almost always protect them in the wrong place and reward the wrong men. 1879 G. C. Harlan Eyesight vii. 96 The simplest forms of spectacles are those used merely to protect the eyes from mechanical injury or excessive light. 1894 E. Fawcett New Nero ii. 26 Music..was always an expression of..that soulless and mysterious will-to-live, which for ever creates, protects, and perpetuates. 1934 W. B. Yeats tr. Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus in Coll. Plays 543 Theseus... If God sent you hither, you need no protection of mine, but God or no God my mere name will protect. |
b. To act as official or legal protector (protector 1) or guardian of.
| 1593 Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, ii. iii. 29, I see no reason, why a King of yeeres should be to be protected like a Child. 1594 ― Rich. III, ii. iii. 21 Then the King, Had vertuous Vnkles to protect his Grace. |
c. To attempt to preserve (a threatened plant or animal species) by preventing collecting, hunting, etc.; to restrict access to (land valued for its wild life or its undisturbed state).
| 1893 Zoologist XVII. 390 If a particular species were declining, and were known to frequent a particular place, the County Council should..be called upon to protect that restricted area. 1935 Discovery Oct. 304/1 To protect a bird proved..to be noxious simply brings bird⁓protection into contempt. 1969 F. N. Hepper in J. Fisher et al. Red Bk. 360/1 The need to protect plants for their own sake is becoming increasingly accepted by those in authority. |
2. Pol. Econ. To assist or guard (a domestic industry) against the competition of foreign productions by means of imposts on the latter.
| 1789 Deb. Congress U.S. 9 Apr. (1834) 106 [Measures] calculated to encourage the productions of our country, and protect our infant manufactures. 1825 J. S. Mill in Westm. Rev. III. 415 The various classes of manufactures are protected from foreign competition. 1827–39 Gen. P. Thompson Catechism Corn Laws (1839) §160 If no trade can be ‘protected’ but at the expense of some other trade first, and of the consumers a second time besides, it will be very difficult to make out a case for ‘protection’. 1868 Rogers Pol. Econ. xvii. (1876) 233 If every producer of every kind were protected, foreign trade might cease... It would be certainly futile, to protect everybody. 1885 Ld. Dunraven in Daily Tel. 29 Sept. 2/6 Their industries were protected and ours were not. |
3. Comm. To provide funds to meet (a commercial draft or bill of exchange); cf. cover v.1 18.
| 1884 Law Times Rep. LI. 16/1 Please protect the draft as advised above and oblige drawer. |
4. a. To furnish with a protective covering; spec. in reference to war-ships.
| 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 615 When the gilder has protected the burnished points, he dries the piece. 1884 [see protected]. |
b. To provide (machinery, etc.) with devices or appliances to prevent injury from it.
| 1900 Daily News 14 Apr. 2/5 The different systems of ‘safety’ or ‘protected’ rifle ranges in use. |
c. To provide (an electrical device or machine) with safeguards against too high a current or voltage.
| 1875 Telegr. Jrnl. III. 60/2 Lightning protectors invented to protect telegraph lines. 1888 D. Salomons Managem. of Accumulators & Private Electric Light Installations (ed. 3) ii. ii. 97 Put a safety fuse in every switch and wall plug... Every lamp is protected in this way..against accidental short-circuits. 1935 Monseth & Robinson Relay Syst. xiii. 458 The first zone..is protected by an instantaneous balanced-beam impedance element. 1975 D. G. Fink Electronics Engineers' Handbk. vii. 27 Two types of fast-blow fuses are used to protect power-tubes. |
5. Chem. a. To prevent the alteration or removal of (a particular group or part of a molecule) in a reaction, by first causing it to form an unreactive derivative from which the original structure can later be regenerated.
| 1889 G. M'Gowan tr. Bernthsen's Text-bk. Org. Chem. 352 When it is wished to prepare the mono-nitro-compounds, the aniline must again be ‘protected’, either by using its acetyl compound or by nitrating in presence of excess of concentrated sulphuric acid. 1929 Mitchell & Hamilton Biochem. Amino Acids i. 90 In other words, the chloracetyl group, introduced to protect the amino group of the amino acid is, after it has performed its protective function, itself transformed into an amino acid group. 1951 I. L. Finar Org. Chem. I. xi. 203 If the synthesis requires reaction with one halogen atom only, the most satisfactory procedure is to ‘protect’ the other halogen atom by ether formation and subsequently decompose the ether with concentrated hydrobromic acid. 1964 N. G. Clark Mod. Org. Chem. vi. 90 By forming the dibromide..the double bond is ‘protected’ from the ensuing reaction, and may be restored later to the compound by zinc treatment. 1971 D. R. Williams Metals of Life ix. 134 Freeman et al. have found that the amide bonds in simple peptides which are usually easily hydrolysed to give amino acids again are protected by transition metal ions, the best protectors being copper (II) and nickel (II). |
b. To render (a hydrophobic sol) inert to the flocculating action of small concentrations of an electrolyte.
| [1903 Jrnl. Chem. Soc. LXXXIV. i. 135 The capacity of colloidal solutions to protect a colloidal solution of gold against the precipitating action of an estimated quantity of sodium chloride is expressed as the gold number.] 1909 J. Alexander tr. Zsigmondy's Colloids & Ultramicroscope iii. 77 Another colloid which protects the nascent colloidal gold was discovered by Faraday, and called by him ‘jelly’. 1939 Thorpe's Dict. Appl. Chem. (ed. 4) III. 287/2 A quartz suspension protected by gelatine will possess the cataphoretic velocity and isoelectric point of gelatine. 1966 Gucker & Seifert Physical Chem. xxii. 665 A lyophobic sol is often stabilized by addition of a lyophilic sol, which is then termed a protective colloid. An example is gelatin, which protects the silver bromide sol used in photographic emulsions. |
Hence proˈtecting vbl. n., the action of the verb; protection.
| c 1630 Sanderson Serm. II. 275 The curbing of the one sort, and the protecting of the other. |