safety

plural safeties

1. countableuncountableThe condition or feeling of being safe; security; certainty.

   He managed to reach the border and escape to safety.

   2 more examples

   If you push it to the limit, safety is not guaranteed.

   Oh, oh! “Go to safety”! Why didn’t I think of that⁉ Here I am in danger when, really, I could simply be going to safety! I shouldn’t have wasted your time by calling in the first place!

   2016 May 15, chapter 911, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 3, episode 12, John Oliver (actor), via HBO

   Antonyms: danger

2. countableuncountableengineeringA safety lock or safety catch: a mechanism on a weapon or dangerous equipment designed to prevent accidental firing or operation.

   Be sure that the safety is set before proceeding.

3. countableuncountablePreservation from escape; close custody.

   […] imprison him, […] / Deliver him to safety; and return,

   c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]

4. countableuncountableAmerican footballAn instance of a player being sacked or tackled in the end zone, or stepping out of the end zone and off the field, resulting in two points to the opposite team.

   He sacked the quarterback in the end zone for a safety.

5. countableuncountableAmerican footballAny of the defensive players who are in position furthest from the line of scrimmage and whose responsibility is to defend against passes as well as to be the tacklers of last resort.

   The free safety made a game-saving tackle on the runner who had broken past the linebackers.

6. countableuncountableball gamesA safety squeeze.

   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, Time Life Books, published 1966, page 225

7. countableuncountableball gamesA safety shot or sequence of such shots.

   That was a poor safety from Higgins.

   1 more example

   After thirty minutes of safety, Selby finally potted a red, to ironic cheers.

8. countabledateduncountableA safety bicycle.

   Many wheelmen and wheelwomen, riding safeties, tandems and tricycles, stopped there during the evening and we had good opportunity for comparing American and English bicycles […]

   1897, American Architect and Architecture, volumes 57-58, page 51

   1 more example

   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, London, page 22

present singular third person safeties · participle present safetying · participle past safetied · past safetied

1. transitiveTo secure (a mechanical component, as in aviation) to keep it from becoming detached even under vibration.
2. to secure a firing pin, as in guns, to keep the gun from firing

   Time went back to normal for him; he safetied his own weapon and dropped it, jumping forward.

   2011, Time Crime, page 92

   1 more example

   Osborne lay propped up on one elbow, his pistol cocked, his aim wavering in the general direction the man had gone. Finally he safetied it, stuffed it in the holster on his right hip, and reached for his cell phone in his jacket pocket. But it was gone.

   2012, Blowout, page 343