Meaning & use
protect
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To keep someone or something safe from harm, damage or danger.
Grammar: Takes an object, often with 'from' or 'against': protect your skin from the sun.
Patterns
- protect someone from something
- protect something against something
- protect someone by doing something
Wear a helmet to protect your head from injury.
The coat protects against wind and rain.
Parents try to protect their children from danger.
verbtransitivebusinessfinance
To shield an industry or product from foreign competition by taxes or limits on imports.
Grammar: Used in economics: protect local farmers.
Patterns
- protect an industry
The government raised taxes to protect local steel makers.
Some countries protect their farmers with high tariffs.
The law was meant to protect domestic jobs.
verbtransitivecomputing
To set a computer file or setting so that it cannot be changed or opened without permission.
Grammar: Often used with passwords.
Patterns
- protect something with something
Protect your account with a strong password.
The document is protected so no one can edit it.
He protected the spreadsheet cells that hold formulas.
Word forms
| third person singular | protects |
|---|---|
| past tense | protected |
| past participle | protected |
| -ing form | protecting |
Common combinations
- protect against
- The vaccine protects against several diseases.
- protect from
- The fence protects the garden from deer.
- protect the environment
- We must protect the environment.
- protect your privacy
- Use settings that protect your privacy.
- legally protected
- The species is legally protected.
- fiercely protect
- She fiercely protects her family.
Synonyms and how they differ
- defend
- Defend suggests guarding against an actual attack, while protect can be general and preventive.
- guard
- Guard implies watching over something, often by a person, whereas protect can be done by an object.
- shield
- Shield suggests putting a barrier between harm and the thing, making it more physical and vivid.
- safeguard
- Safeguard is formal and means taking measures to prevent future harm.
Opposites
Word family
- protection noun
- the act of keeping safe
- protective adjective
- intended to keep safe
- protector noun
- someone or something that protects
- protectively adverb
- in a way that keeps safe
- protectionism noun
- policy of shielding home industries from imports
Commonly confused: protect or project? protect or preserve?
protect vs project
Project means a planned piece of work, and as a verb to throw or display forward; it looks similar but does not mean keep safe.
protect vs preserve
Preserve means to keep in existing state, while protect means to shield from harm.
Practice
Sunscreen helps ___ your skin from harmful rays.
Choose one answer.
Protect something from something is the correct pattern. Prevent would need a different structure, such as prevent damage.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “protect”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.