Definition of "safety"

safety

/ˈseɪfti/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural safeties
1. The condition or feeling of being safe; security; certainty.
  Quotations
  Oh, oh! “Go to safety”! Why didn’t I think of that⁉ Here I am in danger when, really, I could simply be going to safety! I shouldn’t have wasted your time by calling in the first place!
  2016 May 15, chapter 911, in Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, season 3, episode 12, John Oliver (actor), via HBO
2. (mechanics) A mechanism on a weapon or dangerous equipment designed to prevent accidental firing.
3. (American football) An instance of a player being sacked or tackled in the end zone, or stepping out of the end zone and off the field, resulting in two points to the opposite team.
4. (American football) Any of the defensive players who are in position furthest from the line of scrimmage and whose responsibility is to defend against passes as well as to be the tacklers of last resort.
5. (baseball) A safety squeeze.
  Quotations
  Boy wondered about that bunt. He had a notion Fowler would commit himself soon because time was on the go. But Fowler didn’t, making it another sweep of three Pirates. He had thus far given up only two safeties.
  1952, Bernard Malamud, The Natural‎, Time Life Books, published 1966, page 225
6. Preservation from escape; close custody.
  Quotations
  […] imprison him, […] / Deliver him to safety; and return,
  c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene ii]
7. (dated) A safety bicycle.
  Quotations
  Many wheelmen and wheelwomen, riding safeties, tandems and tricycles, stopped there during the evening and we had good opportunity for comparing American and English bicycles […]
  1897, American Architect and Architecture, volumes 57-58, page 51
verb
third-person singular simple present safeties, present participle safetying, simple past and past participle safetied
1. (transitive) To secure (a mechanical component, as in aviation) to keep it from becoming detached even under vibration.
2. to secure a firing pin, as in guns, to keep the gun from firing
  Quotations
  Time went back to normal for him; he safetied his own weapon and dropped it, jumping forward.
  2011, Time Crime, page 92‎
  Osborne lay propped up on one elbow, his pistol cocked, his aim wavering in the general direction the man had gone. Finally he safetied it, stuffed it in the holster on his right hip, and reached for his cell phone in his jacket pocket. But it was gone.
  2012, Blowout, page 343‎

Definition of "safety"

safety

noun

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verb

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