Other forms: protected, protecting, protects
To protect is to keep somebody or something safe from harm. Protect your eyes, protect the children, a protected species.
The preposition is from: protect somebody from something. Protect against also works, and is preferred with abstract dangers — protect against fraud. Note the useful family: protection is the noun, protective is the adjective for both equipment and behaviour, and a protector is either a person or a piece of kit. In conservation and law, protected has a technical force — a protected building or species is one it is illegal to damage, which is stronger than merely being looked after.
1verbprotectTo keep somebody or something safe from harm.
“Wear gloves to protect your hands.”
2verblawTo make something safe by law.
“The whole valley is protected.”
3verbinformationTo keep information or an account secure.
“The file is password protected.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
protect is a way of keeping safe.
Also accepted in games: guard
Latin protegere is pro-, in front, plus tegere, to cover — to cover something by standing in front of it. The same tegere gives toga, tile and detect, which is to uncover. Protection is literally roofing something over.
Proto-Indo-European
*per-
Latin
prōtēctus — covered, protected
English, today
protect
Built from
Attested in English since 1530, from Latin prōtēctus (“covered, protected”), past participle of prōtegō (“to cover the front, protect”) from prō, prō- + tegō, tegere, see tegument. Largely displaced native Middle English shelden, from Old English sċildan (“to protect,” literally “to shield”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA