shield

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   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.

2. 2
   noun

   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

3. 3
   verb

   To protect, to defend.

   Sunscreen shields against the harmful effects of solar rays.

4. 4
   verb

   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.

5. 5
   noun

   hard outer covering or case of certain organisms such as arthropods and turtles

6. 6
   noun

   armor carried on the arm to intercept blows

7. 7
   noun

   a protective covering or structure

8. 8
   verb

   protect, hide, or conceal from danger or harm

Etymology

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…