protectivelyadv.

1839 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 45 682 Coachee bows protectively to the man of tickets.

1881 G. Allen Vignettes from Nature iv. 37 Butterflies close their wings and display only the outer surface, which is imitatively and protectively coloured.

1899 Harper's Mag. Feb. 363 She held up a yellow telegram protectively in front of her.

1909 Westm. Gaz. 11 Sept. 2/2 Behind us, over Boulogne, dark clouds hung low, and the smoke from the harbour writhed up to the dome of Notre Dame, so placidly, so protectively dominating the town.

1988 A. Desai Baumgartner's Berlin i. 8 He walked by, hunching his shoulders protectively.

2003 Boston Globe 19 Apr. (Metropolitan ed.) d5/4 Norell found..evidence of an 8-foot-long ostrichlike creature sitting protectively over a nest of 20 eggs.

1852 Times 18 Sept. 7/3 Duties that might operate ‘protectively’, causing loss of revenue and misdirection of labour and capital, have..been, as far as possible, avoided.

1872–3 W. M. Williams Sci. in Short Chapters (1882) 231 Protectively nursed and sickly imitations of English manufactures.

1974 Times 13 Feb. 18 The Belgians and French have in the past been permitted to limit imports of coal and steel protectively when their own industries were in difficulties.

1989 Independent (Nexis) 30 Sept. 22 It [sc. West Germany] argues that the US, which provides a mere 1 per cent of Eastern bloc imports, behaves protectively.