protectively
Americanadverb
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.
Rozario’s mother holds onto him protectively, then wrests the scissors away.
From Seattle Times • May 3, 2024
Lali is an ordinary unreliable narrator in that he’s digging out things that happened some 60 years before; but there are also things he has protectively buried and isn’t ready to face.
From Los Angeles Times • May 2, 2024
Females of the Muusoctopus robustus—the octopus species found in the garden—hover protectively over their eggs, their arms facing up, ready to swipe away any potential predators.
From Scientific American • Aug. 23, 2023
Without a word, they fan out protectively around us - a team of three BBC journalists granted rare access to the platoon and the conflict zone.
From BBC • Nov. 22, 2022
Matthew held his phone aloft to light the ground, still protectively clutching his poster with his other hand.
From "Book Scavenger" by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
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.
