safety

Less common meanings

4. 4
   lock switchnouncountable

   A mechanism on a weapon or dangerous piece of equipment that prevents accidental firing or operation.

   The instructor checked that the safety was engaged on each rifle.

   A worn safety can allow a firearm to discharge unintentionally.

   UsageUsually on or off: keep the safety on, take the safety off; also engage or set the safety.

   Similarcatch, lock

   Note

   Another name for a safety lock or safety catch, and a countable mechanic's noun: a gun or machine has a safety, and that safety is set or engaged. Context separates it from the general condition. Said of a gun, to check the safety means to check the catch, not the situation. The same device becomes a verb in to safety a gun.

5. 5
   lock a gunverbtransitive

   To engage the safety mechanism on a firearm so that the gun cannot fire accidentally.

   Range officers instruct shooters to safety their weapons before stepping off the line.

   She safetied the carbine and laid it carefully on the bench.

   UsageThe object is the gun, not the catch: safety the rifle. Past form safetied.

   Note

   The firearm counterpart of the mechanic's verb: the noun's catch put into action. In H. Beam Piper's Time Crime (1955), a man safeties his own weapon and drops it before jumping forward to fight. Safetying is what comes before putting the gun away.

6. 6
   snooker shotnouncountable

   A defensive shot, or a run of them, played to leave the opponent without an easy scoring opportunity rather than to pot a ball.

   With no easy red to pot, she played a safety that left the white tight against the baulk cushion.

   A well-judged safety can force an opponent into a costly foul.

   UsageUsually play a safety for one shot; a long exchange of them is a safety battle or simply safety: thirty minutes of safety.

   Note

   The aim is to deny the opponent any straightforward scoring shot, often to force a foul. A long safety battle can end with a pot greeted by ironic cheers.

7. 7
   bicyclenoundatedcountable

   A bicycle with two wheels of roughly equal size and a chain-driven rear wheel, developed as a safer alternative to the high-wheeled penny-farthing.

   By the 1890s, the safety had largely replaced the precarious penny-farthing.

   There are cyclists, like Mr. F. T. Bidlake, who prefer a tricycle to a safety, and to such men a long ride on a tricycle is no more fatiguing than a safety bicycle ride of the same distance.

   1921, W. F. Grew, The Cycle Industry

   Note

   A name from the age of the high-wheeler, when a bicycle with two equal wheels was a novelty and needed a label. The American Architect and Building News in 1897 lists safeties beside tandems and tricycles. W. F. Grew's The Cycle Industry (1921) still sets a tricycle against a safety. Once the design became simply the bicycle, the label lost its job; it is now dated. Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 6 facts

   • The safety bicycle emerged during the high-wheeler era, with roughly equal wheels and a chain-driven rear wheel. en.wikisource.org
   • An 1897 example lists safeties alongside tandems and tricycles. en.wiktionary.org
   • The periodical's title in 1897 was The American Architect and Building News. en.wikipedia.org
   • W. F. Grew wrote The Cycle Industry, published in 1921. en.wikisource.org
   • Grew contrasts a tricycle with a safety. en.wikisource.org
   • The safety design became the standard bicycle design. en.wikipedia.org
8. 8
   noundated

   In baseball, a base hit.

   Boy wondered about that bunt. He had a notion Fowler would commit himself soon because time was on the go. But Fowler didn’t, making it another sweep of three Pirates. He had thus far given up only two safeties.

   1952, Bernard Malamud, The Natural
9. 9
   verb

   To secure a mechanical component so that it cannot become detached even under continuous vibration.
10. 10
    nounarchaic

    The keeping of a person or thing in close custody to prevent escape.