shield
n. countablen. a piece of equipment used to protect your body from attacks. It can also be any person or thing that keeps you safe from danger or harm.
n. a broad piece of defensive armour carried on the arm or in the hand; by extension, any person or object providing protection against danger or unpleasantness.
The knight raised his heavy wooden shield.
Sunscreen acts as a protective shield against the harmful effects of ultraviolet rays during the summer.
The thick atmosphere of the planet serves as a natural shield, incinerating most incoming space debris before it can impact the surface.
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 щит (ščyt, “shield”), Czech and Slovak štít (“shield”), Macedonian штит (štit, “shield”), Polish szczyt (“shield”), Serbo-Croatian штит, štit, ščit (“shield”), Slovene ščit (“shield”), from Proto-Indo-European *skey- (“to dissect, split”).
From Middle English shelden, from Old English scildan.
Often used with the preposition 'against' to indicate the source of danger.