shield

plural shields

1. Anything that protects or defends; defense; shelter; protection.
   1. A broad piece of defensive armor, held in hand, formerly in general use in war, for the protection of the body.

      Beowulf, behind his shield, thrust forth only his right arm.

      1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 44

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      Knock go and come; God's vassals drop and die; And sword and shield, In bloody field, Doth win immortal fame.

      1599, William Shakespeare, Henry V, act III, scene II, line 8

      The shields used by our Norman ancestors were the triangular or heater shield, the target or buckler, the roundel or rondache, and the pavais, pavache, or tallevas.

      1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 22

      My client welcomed the judge […] and they disappeared together into the Ethiopian card-room, which was filled with the assegais and exclamation point shields Mr. Cooke had had made at the sawmill at Beaverton.

      1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

   2. figurativelyOne who protects or defends.

      Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.

      1611, The Holy Bible, King James Version edition, Genesis 15:1

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      Go muster men. My counsel is my shield; We must be brief when traitors brave the field.

      1592, William Shakespeare, Richard III, act 4, scene 3, line 56

   3. biologyA featherless, flat, fleshy protuberance on the head; a frontal shield.
   4. biologyA flattish patch of iridescent feathers.
   5. biologyA heavily hardened, protective plate on an insect's exoskeleton that covers part of its body.
   6. biologyIn lichens, a hardened cup or disk surrounded by a rim and containing the fructification, or asci.
   7. businessA framework used to protect workmen in making an adit under ground, and capable of being pushed along as excavation progresses.

      The earth was excavated from the sunken cylinder; the shield was inserted into it, and the tunnelling began, the target being Wapping, on the opposite bank. The shield was an iron honeycomb containing thirty-six cells within which men dug the wall of mud before them.

      2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 88

   8. literatureA field of energy that protects or defends.

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      Kinetic barriers, colloquially called "shields", provide protection against most mass accelerator weapons. Whether on a starship or a soldier's suit of armor, the basic principle remains the same. Kinetic barriers are repulsive mass effect fields projected from tiny emitters. These shields safely deflect small objects traveling at rapid velocities. This affords protection from bullets and other dangerous projectiles, but still allows the user to sit down without knocking away their chair.

      2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Kinetic Barriers ("Shields") Codex entry

2. A shape like that of a shield; usually, an inverted triangle with sides that curve inward to form a pointed bottom, commonly used for police identifications and company logos.
   1. governmentThe escutcheon on which are placed the bearings in coats of arms.

      Meronyms: field, charge, emblem

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      The second and third quarters of the shield are indecipherable on the stone but clearer in two other representations of the arms, a painted wooden funeral hatchment for Mary Davie[…]

      2012 October 8, Daniel W. Patterson, The True Image: Gravestone Art and the Culture of Scotch Irish Settlers in the Pennsylvania and Carolina Backcountry, UNC Press Books, →ISBN, page 141

   2. ScotlandeuphemisticobsoleteA toilet seat.
   3. A spot resembling, or having the form of a shield.

      Bespotted as with shields of red and black.

      1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene

   4. obsoleteA coin, the old French crown, or écu, having on one side the figure of a shield.
   5. transportA sign or symbol, usually containing numbers and sometimes letters, identifying a highway route.
   6. colloquialgovernmentA police badge.

      The chief put something in his hand and Bosch looked down to see the gold detective's shield.

      2005, Michael Connelly, The closers: a novel

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      M: You get married, that's the last I hear from you. / R: Three kids and a shield, Marcie, I've been busy.

      1995 October 18, Morgan Gendal, Barry M. Schkolmick, Michael S. Chernuchin, “Savages” (14:22 from the start), in Law & Order, season 6, episode 3, spoken by Marcie Donner and Detective Rey Curtis (Marianne Hagan and Benjamin Bratt)

3. geographyA large expanse of exposed stable Precambrian rock.
   1. geographyA wide and relatively low-profiled volcano, usually composed entirely of lava flows.
4. ScotlandeuphemisticfigurativelyobsoleteA place with a toilet seat: an outhouse; a lavatory.
5. BritishEnglishautomotiveParts at the front and back of a vehicle which are meant to absorb the impact of a collision
6. businessA circuit board that can connect to an Arduino microcontroller and extend its capabilities.

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   Arduino does many interesting things on its own, but it can't do everything. Fortunately, thanks to the open design of Arduino, building add-on boards to extend what Arduino can do is pretty easy. ¶ These boards are called "shields," because they usually fit over the top of Arduino like a protecting shield. ¶ Shields contain their own circuitry, components, and sometimes processing chips that can augment Arduino's capabilities. There are shields that enable Arduino to read GPS signals, drive robot motors, take pictures, connect to Bluetooth devices, control electroluminescent wire...as of this writing, there are more than 300 shields.

   2012, Emily Gertz, Patrick Di Justo, “New Component: Ethernet Shield”, in Environmental Monitoring With Arduino, Sebastopol, C.A.: O'Reilly Media, Inc., →ISBN, page 45

present singular third person shields · participle present shielding · participle past shielded · past shielded

1. ambitransitiveTo protect, to defend.

   Sunscreen shields against the harmful effects of solar rays.

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   Shots rang out and a 15-year-old boy, shielding a woman from the line of fire, was killed.

   2004, Chris Wallace, “Character: Profiles in Presidential Courage”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)

2. UKintransitiveTo shelter; to protect oneself.

   The government has updated its guidance for people who are shielding taking into account that COVID-19 disease levels have decreased over the last few weeks.

   2020 May 31, “Guidance on shielding and protecting people who are clinically extremely vulnerable from COVID-19”, in GOV.UK

3. businessTo protect from the influence of.

plural Shields · alternative Shiel

1. A surname.