protective

Pluralprotectives

1. 1
   adjective

   Serving or intended to keep someone or something safe from harm or damage.

   The factory issued protective eyewear to all workers on the line.

   A thick protective coating shields the metal pipes from rust.

   Note

   The word came from Medieval Latin prōtēctīvus, though English speakers can read it simply as protect plus -ive. In this sense the protecting is a job a thing does. It usually sits before nouns that name gear, postures and purposes: protective gloves, a protective stance, a protective function. When the protecting is a feeling someone has, the word has moved over to the caring, defensive meaning.

2. 2
   adjective

   Having a strong wish to protect someone or something, and tending to defend them.

   She felt fiercely protective of her younger colleagues during the meeting.

   New parents often become protective of their newborn around visitors.

   Similardefensive

   Oppositeneglectful

   Note

   Here the protecting is an attitude, and whoever is being guarded follows of: protective of their cubs, protective of a newborn. It grades easily with more and most, and an adverb such as famously often sharpens it. Unlike the sense for gear and coatings, it describes someone rather than something. It can lean from care toward defensiveness, the second half of its meaning.

3. 3
   nounBritishcountable

   An object or device that keeps a person or thing safe from harm or damage.

   The batsman checked that the protective covering his shin was secure.

   Workshop staff stored the protectives for the cutting machines in a locker.

   Similarguard, shield

   Note

   A British noun use, in which the adjective becomes a name for the thing itself and takes the regular plural protectives. The adjective is far more familiar, so outside British English it is safer to say protective gear or a protective covering. Those phrases carry the same meaning without making the reader stop at an unexpected noun.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A discreet or indirect word for a condom.

   She kept a protective tucked in her purse for emergencies.

   The pharmacy sold protectives from a shelf behind the counter.

   Similarcondom

Showing meanings only. Show all 4