deflector

plural deflectors

1. Something which deflects something else, especially a stream of fluid or particles.

   1992 Nasa Patents Available for Licensing from the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center The deflector assembly contains a plurality of vanes which change the direction of the solar energy to the vertical, while constantly keeping the same side of the deflector facing the sun.

2. A diaphragm in a lamp, stove, etc. by which the flame and gases are brought together to improve combustion.
3. literatureA force field; an invisible barrier used as a protective shield.

   Deflectors say there's something there, sensors say there isn't. Density negative. Radiation negative. Energy negative.

   1966 September 22, Samuel A. Peeples, Where No Man Has Gone Before (Star Trek), episode 3, spoken by Spock (Leonard Nimoy)

   2 more examples

   The blasters are those beams of ravening destruction which take care of recalcitrant meteorites in a spaceship's course when the deflectors can't handle them.

   1945 May 28, Murray Leinster, “First Contact”, in Astounding Stories, volume 35, number 3

   PICARD: If the Romulans have returned to this sector we should know about that. Mister Worf, any further activity? WORF: Negative, sir. PICARD: Slow to half impulse. LAFORGE: Going to one half impulse. ... Now entering quadrant nine-zero-seven, mark three. PICARD: Shields and deflectors up. Go to Yellow Alert.

   1988 March 21, Heart of Glory (Star Trek: The Next Generation) (Science Fiction), Paramount Domestic Television, →OCLC