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.

I think the film is a patient, careful excavation of how we actually begin to change, how we cope, how we begin to heal, in the process, reaching out, retreating, trying to connect, self-protecting.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 4, 2022

It jumped back into action after awakening from its deep self-protecting slumber.

From The Guardian • Jun. 13, 2018

He visits Disneyland and requests photos with Goofy and Mickey, who bend and mug as he stands upright with customary self-protecting stiffness.

From New York Times • Apr. 12, 2018

“I still make choices every day as a 41-year-old actress that I think of as self-protecting and wise,” she wrote in a New York Times essay, titled “Being a Feminist in Harvey Weinstein’s World.”

From Washington Times • Oct. 19, 2017

On its black bosom arose one of the earliest, if not the earliest, of self-protecting civilizations, which grew so mightily that it still furnishes superlatives to thinking and speaking men.

From Darkwater Voices from Within the Veil by Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt)