shield

American  

[sheeld] / ʃild /

noun

• shields
  plural

1. a broad piece of armor, varying widely in form and size, carried apart from the body, usually on the left arm, as a defense against swords, lances, arrows, etc.

2. a similar device, often of lightweight plastic, used by riot police to protect themselves from rocks and other thrown objects.

3. something shaped like a shield, variously round, octagonal, triangular, or somewhat heart-shaped.

4. a person or thing that protects.

5. a police officer's, detective's, or sheriff's badge.

6. Ordnance. a steel screen attached to a gun to protect its crew, mechanism, etc.

7. Mining. a movable framework for protecting a miner from cave-ins, etc.

8. Electricity. a covering, usually made of metal, placed around an electric device or circuit in order to reduce the effects of external electric and magnetic fields.

9. Zoology. a protective plate or the like on the body of an animal, as a scute, enlarged scale, etc.

10. dress shield.

11. Heraldry. an escutcheon, especially one broad at the top and pointed at the bottom, for displaying armorial bearings.

12. Astronomy. Shield, the constellation Scutum.

13. Also called continental shield. Geology. a vast area of ancient crustal rocks which, together with a platform, constitutes a craton.

14. a protective barrier against nuclear radiation, especially a lead or concrete structure around a reactor.

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verb (used with object)

• shields,
  present (3rd person singular)
• shielded,
  past participle,  past
• shielding
  present participle

1. to protect (someone or something) with or as if with a shield.

2. to serve as a protection for.

3. to hide or conceal; protect by hiding.

4. Obsolete. to avert; forbid.

verb (used without object)

• shields,
  present (3rd person singular)
• shielded,
  past participle,  past
• shielding
  present participle

1. to act or serve as a shield.

shield British  

/ ʃiːld /

noun

1. any protection used to intercept blows, missiles, etc, such as a tough piece of armour carried on the arm

2. any similar protective device

3. Also called: scutcheon, escutcheon. heraldry a pointed stylized shield used for displaying armorial bearings

4. anything that resembles a shield in shape, such as a prize in a sports competition

5. the protective outer covering of an animal, such as the shell of a turtle

6. physics a structure of concrete, lead, etc, placed around a nuclear reactor or other source of radiation in order to prevent the escape of radiation

7. a broad stable plateau of ancient Precambrian rocks forming the rigid nucleus of a particular continent See Baltic Shield Canadian Shield

8. short for dress shield

9. civil engineering a hollow steel cylinder that protects men driving a circular tunnel through loose, soft, or water-bearing ground

10. informal

    1. short for the Sheffield Shield

    2. short for the Ranfurly Shield

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verb

1. (tr) to protect, hide, or conceal (something) from danger or harm

shield Scientific  

/ shēld /

1. A wall or housing of an absorbing material, such as concrete or lead, built around a nuclear reactor to prevent the escape of radiation.

2. A structure or arrangement of metal plates or mesh designed to protect a piece of electronic equipment from electrostatic or magnetic interference.

3. A large geographic area where rocks of a continent's craton (the ancient, relatively undisturbed portion of a continental plate) are visible at the surface. A shield is often surrounded by platforms covered with sediment.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• shielder
  noun
• shieldlessness
  noun
• undershield
  noun
• shieldless
  adjective
• shieldlike
  adjective
• unshielded
  adjective
• unshielding
  adjective
• shieldlessly
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• shields
  plural

Participles

• shielding
  present
• shielded
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• shield
  simple
• shields
  simple
• have shielded
  perfect
• has shielded
  perfect
• am shielding
  progressive
• are shielding
  progressive
• is shielding
  progressive
• have been shielding
  perfect progressive
• has been shielding
  perfect progressive

Past

• shielded
  simple
• had shielded
  perfect
• was shielding
  progressive
• were shielding
  progressive
• had been shielding
  perfect progressive

Future

• will shield
  simple
• will have shielded
  perfect
• will be shielding
  progressive
• will have been shielding
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of shield

First recorded before 900; (noun) Middle English shelde, Old English sceld; cognate with Dutch, German Schild, Gothic skildus; (verb) Middle English shelden, Old English sceldan, scildan, derivative of the noun

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Explanation

A shield is a cover that protects whatever is behind or beneath it. If you carry a shield you might be a knight, or a traffic cop who likes to flash the badge. Ancestors of the word shield include the Old English scild, similar to sciell, or "shell," which suggests the meaning of the word. If you're a turtle, you might use your shell as a shield. But a shield doesn't have to be something physical. Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once said, "Love is my sword, goodness my armor, and humor my shield." The word can also be used as a verb. You might shield your tender ears from hearing naughty words. Don't worry, shield is perfectly safe.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

shield shields shielded shielding

Nothing escapes Maupassant’s attention: the attitudes intended to shield weak character that expose it instead; the vanity that fools no one; the morality unwittingly displayed by styles of dress.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026

A deferred payment obligation doesn’t automatically shield the proceeds from marital claims, and the note itself may be treated as an asset in a divorce.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 15, 2026

Many subsidize retail fuel prices to shield consumers from swings in the global oil market.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

Croft received a protective shield for his troubles, at least.

From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026

What riches this coarse bit of muslin had been in the two weeks since it had been provided: a shield for my head from the scratch and smell of the bedding.

From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom

More than a dozen police personnel were deployed at each of the container checkpoints, equipped with protective shields, batons and tear gas shells.

From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026

What are Israel's Iron Dome and other missile shields?

From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026

"The cancer cells are really encapsulated within these areas of macrophages and fibroblasts that we think act as shields for these dormant cancer cells," said Maria.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 6, 2026

“I don’t think it shields the government from liability in total,” she said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026

Njemile yelled, and instinctively, a few of them raised up their pathetic poster-board shields that they still carried.

From "Anger Is a Gift" by Mark Oshiro

Further ecological mitigation proposed included use of bat boxes, a lighting plan with "properly positioned and shielded lighting minimising light spill", standard trees and 20 smaller trees and hedging.

From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2026

Legal experts say the industry’s claim to be shielded by federal law is weak.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026

Largely absent from Mr. Kolker’s story until the end, they were shielded from the burden of illness by their healthy parents and generous aunts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026

The catering truck, which typically loads in-flight meals, parked on the right side of Air Force One, partially shielded from media cameras.

From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026

Boo Boo shielded the right side of her face from the glare of the sun.

From "Nine Stories" by J. D. Salinger

AM arrived in cars in the 1920s as an appealing value-added feature, but nowadays it is a liability for the automakers’ EVs because the signal can interfere with certain systems and requires special shielding.

From Slate ● Oct. 20, 2026

But leadership means shielding your team from unnecessary noise while fostering candor, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said in the latest episode of WSJ Leadership Institute Presents: Leaders, as seen in the video above.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 19, 2026

Underground lava tubes could provide more stable temperatures and natural shielding from these dangers.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026

The shielding effect wasn’t as pronounced in September, but regardless, Emanuel expects it will again help during future selloffs.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 7, 2026

My father looked at the yellow tights again, sort of shielding his eyes, and considered.

From "The Wednesday Wars" by Gary D. Schmidt

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Related Words

• conceal
• cover
• defend
• safeguard
• shelter

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