protectiveadjective
uk/prəˈtek.tɪv/us/prəˈtek.tɪv/B2 giving protection:
protective clothing
a protective mask and goggles
C1 wanting to protect someone from criticism, hurt, danger, etc. because you like them very much:
It's easy to be too protective towards/of your children.
She's fiercely protective of the man she married 29 years ago.
More examples
- I keep my computer printer under a protective plastic cover.
- People who work with furnaces in a steel factory need to wear protective clothing.
- The protective covering must be insensitive to light and heat.
- The anti-personnel mines were laid as a protective shield around the town.
- In some diseases, the protective layer in a joint wears away.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Defending and protecting
- baby
- bandobast
- bastion
- biodefence
- cherish
- featherbed
- guard
- kill
- mollycoddle
- mother
- out of harm's way idiom
- overprotective
- patrol
- proof
- proof
- protect
- ring-fence
- rustproof
- wrap
- wrap sb (up) in cotton wool idiom
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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
Liking
protectively
adverb uk/prəˈtek.tɪv.li/us/prəˈtek.tɪv.li/
He put an arm around her shoulder protectively.
protectiveness
noun [ U ] uk/prəˈtek.tɪv.nəs/us/prəˈtek.tɪv.nəs/