Online dictionaryOnline dictionary
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Shield   /ʃild/   Listen
noun
Shield  n.  
1.
A broad piece of defensive armor, carried on the arm, formerly in general use in war, for the protection of the body. See Buckler. "Now put your shields before your hearts and fight, With hearts more proof than shields."
2.
Anything which protects or defends; defense; shelter; protection. "My council is my shield."
3.
Figuratively, one who protects or defends. "Fear not, Abram; I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward."
4.
(Bot.) In lichens, a Hardened cup or disk surrounded by a rim and containing the fructification, or asci.
5.
(Her.) The escutcheon or field on which are placed the bearings in coats of arms. Cf. Lozenge.
6.
(Mining & Tunneling) A framework used to protect workmen in making an adit under ground, and capable of being pushed along as excavation progresses.
7.
A spot resembling, or having the form of, a shield. "Bespotted as with shields of red and black."
8.
A coin, the old French crown, or écu, having on one side the figure of a shield. (Obs.)
Shield fern (Bot.), any fern of the genus Aspidium, in which the fructifications are covered with shield-shaped indusia; called also wood fern.



verb
Shield  v. t.  (past & past part. shielded; pres. part. shielding)  
1.
To cover with, or as with, a shield; to cover from danger; to defend; to protect from assault or injury. "Shouts of applause ran ringing through the field, To see the son the vanquished father shield." "A woman's shape doth shield thee."
2.
To ward off; to keep off or out. "They brought with them their usual weeds, fit to shield the cold to which they had been inured."
3.
To avert, as a misfortune; hence, as a supplicatory exclamation, forbid! (Obs.) "God shield that it should so befall." "God shield I should disturb devotion!"






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |
Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar





"Shield" Quotes from Famous Books



... lightning, Monteith pulled from his pocket a loaded revolver and pointed it full at his rival. With a cry of terror, Frida flung herself between them, and tried to protect her lover with the shield of her own body. But Bertram gently unwound her arms and held her off from him tenderly. "No, no, darling," he said slowly, sitting down with wonderful calm upon a big grey sarsen-stone that abutted upon the pathway; "I had forgotten again; I keep always forgetting what kind of ...
— The British Barbarians • Grant Allen

... in something about her hair, unconsciously cribbed from Ovid; and something about her walk—this I tracked to Horace; and wound up the whole farrago by saying he was ready to be her door-mat and to shield her from the furies, etc., which, I think, Grim genuinely evolved out of his own effervescing breast. The ode was properly posted by the poet himself, and even Wilson felt genuinely interested in the result. As for Grim, he was so jolly ...
— Acton's Feud - A Public School Story • Frederick Swainson

... of which were conducted with ability. Among them, the "Colored American," in New York city; Samuel E. Cornish, Philip A. Bell, and Charles B. Ray, at different times, Editors. "The Demosthenian Shield," issued from a Literary Society of young colored men, in the city of Philadelphia. "The Straggler," by Philip A. Bell, New York, out of which the Colored American took its origin. The "National Reformer," an able monthly periodical, in pamphlet form, ...
— The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States • Martin R. Delany

... more or less. When we were only acquaintances, you let me be myself, but now you're always protecting me." Her voice swelled. "I won't be protected. I will choose for myself what is ladylike and right. To shield me is an insult. Can't I be trusted to face the truth but I must get it second-hand through you? A woman's place! You despise my mother—I know you do—because she's conventional and bothers over puddings; but, oh goodness!"—she rose to her feet—"conventional, ...
— A Room With A View • E. M. Forster

... words of hopelessness saved him. He remembered his people, whose shield he was destined to be, and keen salutary pain pierced his deadened heart. "They are doomed to death," he thought wearily. "Serene shadows in the darkness of the Infinite," thought he, and horror grew upon him. "Frail vessels with living seething blood with a heart that knows ...
— Famous Modern Ghost Stories • Various


More quotes...



Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com