safeguard
Americannoun
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safeguards
plural
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something that serves as a protection or defense or that ensures safety.
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a permit for safe passage.
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a guard or convoy.
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a mechanical device for ensuring safety.
verb (used with object)
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safeguards,
present (3rd person singular)
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safeguarded,
past participle, past
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safeguarding
present participle
noun
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a person or thing that ensures protection against danger, damage, injury, etc
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a document authorizing safe-conduct
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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safeguardsimple
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safeguardssimple
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have safeguardedperfect
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has safeguardedperfect
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am safeguardingprogressive
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are safeguardingprogressive
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is safeguardingprogressive
-
have been safeguardingperfect progressive
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has been safeguardingperfect progressive
Past
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safeguardedsimple
-
had safeguardedperfect
-
was safeguardingprogressive
-
were safeguardingprogressive
-
had been safeguardingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of safeguard
1325–75; Middle English savegarde (noun) safe conduct < Middle French salvegarde, sauvegarde. See safe, guard
Explanation
A safeguard is a defense or precaution. You could describe a flu shot as a safeguard against getting sick, for example. Safeguards protect against something negative, whether it's an attacking army invading a country or a boy you don't like much asking you to the prom. A store's security system is a safeguard against theft, and a secret password is a safeguard against your sister reading your email. You can use it as a verb too: "We clearly need to safeguard our Halloween candy so Mom and Dad don't steal it after we go to bed."
Vocabulary lists containing safeguard
Declaration of the Rights of Woman (1791)
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Herbert Hoover on "Rugged Individualism" (1928)
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A Single Shard
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“For this reason, the Church wishes to renew an alliance with artists and cultural institutions to safeguard our humanity.”
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 2, 2026
“Central banks have a responsibility to safeguard the stability of the whole system. We cannot stand aside and assume that technological progress will resolve these questions on its own.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2026
"They might be limited in what they can share with you for data privacy reasons, but they can take steps to safeguard that account," he says.
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
The bill also provides longer-term scholarship and healthcare protections and seeks to safeguard women's and Olympic sports.
From Barron's ● Sep. 29, 2026
In their zeal to purify usage and safeguard the language, they have made it difficult to think clearly about felicity in expression and have muddied the task of explaining the art of writing.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
The firms also agreed to implement safeguards to keep models operating as intended and quickly detect and fix any issues.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
Some would require companies to disclose more about how their systems work and what safeguards they employ.
From Barron's ● Sep. 29, 2026
Specific safeguards can be tested: limits on an agent’s access, independent security evaluations, reporting of serious incidents and the ability to shut down a system that acts outside its authority.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
The crashes resulted in eventual Boeing fixes that added safeguards to the flight-control system.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026
There were multiple safeguards to prevent the accidental release of a virus like Marburg Cardinal.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
These kinds of investigations hint at a larger reality in the Ecuadorean province, where modern life bends around an ecosystem so fiercely safeguarded that wildlife effectively holds legal right of way.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 13, 2026
Robert Gunn, station director of Sizewell B, said the deal would ensure hundreds of jobs were safeguarded.
From BBC ● Jul. 9, 2026
"Our national heritage and environment must be safeguarded from greed and unnecessary destruction without public participation," he added.
From BBC ● Jun. 8, 2026
"The government will ensure that the company as a whole remains viable for the future and that Germany's security of supply is safeguarded," the spokeswoman said.
From Barron's ● May 19, 2026
According to the Pukhtunwali code of panah, or asylum, if a person asks for protection against his enemies, the person, in this case Osama, would be safeguarded at all costs.
From "Shooting Kabul" by N. H. Senzai
Nieuwenhuijsen reached out to Kars, who connected her with the middle-aged Dutch couple who had been safeguarding a sheaf of old Sablonière family letters in bundles of plastic bags—and were Nieuwenhuijsen’s own long-lost cousins.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2026
Conway had been suspended from ministry in February when a "safeguarding complaint" was made.
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026
Measures that reduced disturbances generated the largest benefits for forest biodiversity and were nearly as important as preventing outright deforestation when it came to safeguarding carbon stocks.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 21, 2026
The councillor said she had reported a "very serious safeguarding issue" to the party on 14 July but "had heard nothing" since.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
Who is safeguarding the consumer to see that no residues of dieldrin or heptachlor are appearing in milk?
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
