civil defense
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of civil defense
First recorded in 1935–40
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.
South Korea has massively invested in civil defense.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 10, 2026
"It requires surveys to discover and track NEOs, campaigns to characterize those that are hazardous, modeling efforts to understand and predict impact effects and associated consequences, and mitigation through impact avoidance and/or civil defense."
From Science Daily • Oct. 31, 2025
According to Laura Velazquez, the head of Mexico's civil defense authority, the states of Veracruz, Hidalgo and Puebla were hardest hit by flooding brought on by days of heavy rains.
From Barron's • Oct. 13, 2025
The Eisenhower administration, busy building a civil defense network in the middle of the Cold War, worked with Congress to pass new disaster relief laws.
From Salon • Jan. 26, 2025
As if striving to say something even less helpful, New York’s top civil defense official said, “As far as shelters for the majority of our citizens is concerned—of course, we don’t have any.”
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
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.
