shield

Anything that protects or defends; defense; shelter; protection.

Noun

  1. Anything that protects or defends; defense; shelter; protection.
    • Knock go and come; God's vassals drop and die; And sword and shield, In bloody field, Doth win immortal fame. - 1599, William Shakespeare, Henry V, act III, scene II, line 8:
    • The shields used by our Norman ancestors were the triangular or heater shield, the target or buckler, the roundel or rondache, and the pavais, pavache, or tallevas. - 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour...
    • My client welcomed the judge […] and they disappeared together into the Ethiopian card-room, which was filled with the assegais and exclamation point shields Mr. Cooke had had made at the sawmill at Beaverton. - 1897...

    1. A broad piece of defensive armor, held in hand, formerly in general use in war, for the protection of the body.

    2. (figurative) One who protects or defends.

      • Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward. - 1611, The Holy Bible, King James Version edition, Genesis 15:1:
      • Go muster men. My counsel is my shield; We must be brief when traitors brave the field. - 1592, William Shakespeare, Richard III, act 4, scene 3, line 56:

    3. (lichenology) In lichens, a hardened cup or disk surrounded by a rim and containing the fructification, or asci.

    4. (mining, tunnelling) A framework used to protect workmen in making an adit under ground, and capable of being pushed along as excavation progresses.

      • The earth was excavated from the sunken cylinder; the shield was inserted into it, and the tunnelling began, the target being Wapping, on the opposite bank. The shield was an iron honeycomb containing thirty-six cells...

    5. (science fiction) A field of energy that protects or defends.

      • Kinetic barriers, colloquially called "shields", provide protection against most mass accelerator weapons. Whether on a starship or a soldier's suit of armor, the basic principle remains the same. Kinetic barriers are...
  2. A shape like that of a shield; usually, an inverted triangle with sides that curve inward to form a pointed bottom, commonly used for police identifications and company logos.
    • Meronyms: field, charge, emblem
    • The second and third quarters of the shield are indecipherable on the stone but clearer in two other representations of the arms, a painted wooden funeral hatchment for Mary Davie[…] - 2012 October 8, Daniel W....

    1. (heraldry) The escutcheon on which are placed the bearings in coats of arms.

    2. (Scotland, euphemistic, obsolete) A toilet seat.

    3. A spot resembling, or having the form of a shield.

      • Bespotted as with shields of red and black. - 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene:

    4. (obsolete) A coin, the old French crown, or écu, having on one side the figure of a shield.

    5. (transport) A sign or symbol, usually containing numbers and sometimes letters, identifying a highway route.

    6. (colloquial, law enforcement) A police badge.

      • The chief put something in his hand and Bosch looked down to see the gold detective's shield. - 2005, Michael Connelly, The closers: a novel:
  3. A large expanse of exposed stable Precambrian rock.

    1. (geology) A wide and relatively low-profiled volcano, usually composed entirely of lava flows.

  4. A place with a toilet seat: an outhouse; a lavatory.
  5. Parts at the front and back of a vehicle which are meant to absorb the impact of a collision

Origin

From Middle English scheld, shelde, from Old English scield (“shield”), from Proto-West Germanic *skeldu, from Proto-Germanic *skelduz (“shield”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)kelH- (“cut, split”). Cognates Cognate with West Frisian skyld (“shield”), Bavarian Schuid (“shield”), Dutch schild (“shield”), German and Low German Schild (“shield”), Luxembourgish Schëld (“shield”), Yiddish שילד (shild, “shield”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk skjold (“shield”), Elfdalian stjöld (“shield”), Faroese skjøldur (“shield”), Gutnish skiåld (“shield”), Icelandic skjöldur (“shield”), Swedish sköld (“shield”), Gothic 𐍃𐌺𐌹𐌻𐌳𐌿𐍃 (skildus, “shield”). Compare Breton skoed (“shield”), Irish sciath (“shield”), Scottish Gaelic sgiath (“shield”), Latin scūtum (“shield”), Latgalian škīda (“shield”), Lithuanian skydas (“shield”), Belarusian шчыт (ščyt, “shield”), Bulgarian, Russian, and Ukrainian...

Forms

shields

Synonyms

bathroom

Hyponyms

buckler heatshield pavache pavais rondache roundel scutum sunshield tallevas targe target

Derived

armshield bitch shield brown-point shield skin longirostris chin shield dayshield dress shield enshield eyeshield face shield faceshield forceshield Golden Shield gumshield gunshield headshield heat shield human shield ice and water shield kite shield lantern shield living shield lockshield meat shield medicine shield

Verb

  1. To protect, to defend.
    • Sunscreen shields against the harmful effects of solar rays.
    • Shots rang out and a 15-year-old boy, shielding a woman from the line of fire, was killed. - 2004, Chris Wallace, “Character: Profiles in Presidential Courage”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):
  2. To shelter; to protect oneself.
    • The government has updated its guidance for people who are shielding taking into account that COVID-19 disease levels have decreased over the last few weeks. - 2020 May 31, “Guidance on shielding and protecting people...
  3. To protect from the influence of.

Origin

An alteration of Middle English schilden after Etymology 1, from Old English sċildan, from Proto-West Germanic *skildijan, form Proto-Germanic *skildijaną.

Forms

shields shielding shielded

Derived

beshield