protect

English

Etymology

Attested in English since 1530, from Latin prōtēctus (“covered, protected”), past participle of prōtegere (“to cover the front, protect”) from prō, prō- (“before, in front of”) +‎ tegere (“to cover”), see tegument. Displaced native Middle English shelden, from Old English sċildan (“to protect,” literally “to shield”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɹəˈtɛkt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛkt

Verb

protect (third-person singular simple present protects, present participle protecting, simple past and past participle protected)

1. (ambitransitive) To keep safe; to defend; to guard; to prevent harm coming to.

   to protect a child from danger

   This antivirus package will protect your computer from hackers.

   Condoms are designed to protect against sexually-transmitted diseases.

   • 2012 March, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 2, page 87:

     But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.

2. (travel, aviation) To book a passenger on a later flight if there is a chance they will not be able to board their earlier reserved flight.

Conjugation

Conjugation of protect

infinitive	(to) protect
	present tense	past tense
1st-person singular	protect	protected
2nd-person singular	protect, protectest†	protected, protectedst†
3rd-person singular	protects, protecteth†	protected
plural	protect
subjunctive	protect	protected
imperative	protect	—
participles	protecting	protected

^† Archaic or obsolete.

Synonyms

• shield
• beshield
• See also Thesaurus:defend

Derived terms

• calprotectin
• cardioprotect
• chemoprotect
• chondroprotect
• cryoprotect
• deprotect
• immunoprotect
• neuroprotect
• neuroprotectin
• overprotect
• photoprotect
• protecc
• protectability
• protectable
• protectant
• protectee
• protectible
• protectin
• protection
• protective
• radioprotect
• reprotect
• seroprotect
• shoot and protect
• underprotect
• unprotect

Translations

to keep safe

Albanian: mbroj (sq) Arabic: حَمَى (ḥamā) Armenian: պաշտպանել (hy) (paštpanel) Aromanian: apãr Asturian: protexer Azerbaijani: qorumaq (az) Basque: babestu Belarusian: абараня́ць impf (abaranjácʹ), абарані́ць pf (abaranícʹ) Bulgarian: предпазвам (bg) (predpazvam), защитавам (bg) (zaštitavam) Burmese: please add this translation if you can Catalan: protegir (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 保護 / 保护 (zh) (bǎohù), 保衛 / 保卫 (zh) (bǎowèi) Czech: chránit (cs) Danish: beskytte (da) Dutch: beschermen (nl), beveiligen (nl) Egyptian: (ḫwj), (mkj), (nḏ) Esperanto: protekti, ŝirmi Estonian: kaitsma Finnish: suojata (fi) (against a concrete threat); suojella (fi), varjella (fi) (against an abstract threat) French: protéger (fr) Galician: protexer (gl), amparar (gl) Georgian:, იცავს (icavs), იფარავს (iparavs), მფარველობს (mparvelobs) German: schützen (de), beschützen (de) Greek: προστατεύω (el) (prostatévo) Haitian Creole: pwoteje Hebrew: הֵגֵן (he) (hegén) Hindi: रक्षा करना (rakṣā karnā) Hungarian: véd (hu), óv (hu), oltalmaz (hu), oltalmába vesz Icelandic: vernda (is) Ido: protektar (io) Irish: caomhnaigh, cosain, ainic Old Irish: aingid, imm·dích, do·eim Italian: proteggere (it) Japanese: 守る (ja) (まもる, mamoru), 保護する (ja) (ほごする, hogo suru) Khmer: គាំពារ (km) (koam pie) Korean: 보호하다 (ko) (bohohada) Kurdish: Central Kurdish: پاراستن (ckb) (parastin) Northern Kurdish: parastin (ku), parêztin Lao: ປົກປ້ອງ (pok pǭng), ປ້ອງກັນ (pǭng kan) Latin: protego, defendo (la), tutor, tueor, colo, munio (la) Latvian: saudzēt Lithuanian: saugoti (lt), apsaugoti Malayalam: രക്ഷിയ്ക്കുക (rakṣiykkuka) Maore Comorian: uhifadhwi Maori: whakangungu, whakaruruhau, whakahaumaru, kaikaro (With a spell), rauhī, pākaihoko (referring to trade) Middle English: helien, forhelien, bischilden, beschielden, berwen, bergen, mundien, mounden Mongolian: сэргийлэх (mn) (sergiilex) Navajo: bichʼą́ą́h iighááh Ngazidja Comorian: uhifadhwi Norman: protégi Norwegian: beskytte, verne, sikre (no), dekke (no), gardere Occitan: protegir (oc) Old English: sċildan Old Occitan: guardar Persian: پاییدن (fa) (pâyidan) Polish: chronić (pl) Portuguese: proteger (pt) Romanian: proteja (ro), apăra (ro), ocroti (ro) Russian: защища́ть (ru) impf (zaščiščátʹ), защити́ть (ru) pf (zaščitítʹ), оберега́ть (ru) impf (oberegátʹ), бере́чь (ru) impf (beréčʹ) Sanskrit: रक्षति (sa) (rakṣati) Scots: pertect Scottish Gaelic: dìon Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: заштитити pf Roman: zaštititi (sh) pf Sikkimese: སྐྱོང་བོ (skyong bo) Sindhi: رکيا ڪرڻ (rkhyā krṇ) Slovak: please add this translation if you can Southern Altai: корыыр (korïïr) Spanish: proteger (es), defensar, captener (es) Swahili: kukinga, kulinda (sw) Swedish: skydda (sv), beskydda (sv) Tagalog: protektahan Telugu: సంరక్షించు (te) (saṁrakṣiñcu) Thai: ป้องกัน (th) (bpɔ̂ng-gan), คุ้มครอง (th) (kúm-krɔɔng), ปกป้อง (th) (bpòk-bpɔ̂ng) Tocharian B: pāsk- Turkish: korumak (tr) Ugaritic: 𐎐𐎙𐎗 (nġr) Ukrainian: захища́ти impf (zaxyščáty), захисти́ти pf (zaxystýty) Uzbek: qoʻrimoq (uz) Vietnamese: bảo vệ (vi) Welsh: amddiffyn (cy)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

Woiwurrung: (please verify) dill-bâ-din