Sheltering

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. Offering a safe haven or protection from threats or hardship
2. Serving as a protective cover or refuge that ensures safety from harm or unfavorable circumstances
3. Giving protection or a safe place to stay to shield from danger or bad conditions

Etymology: The modern sense of "shelter" comes from a military formation. In Old English, "sċildtruma" meant a phalanx of troops, literally a "shield-troop," built from "sċyld" (shield) and "truma" (a troop of soldiers). Soldiers locked their shields together to form a wall or roof against arrows, and the same word also covered a tortoise and a simple covering or shed. Over time the defensive wall lost its military association and kept only the sense of a protective covering. In Middle English the word appeared as "sheltron," a roof or wall of locked shields, and that form survives today as "sheltron," a specialist term for the battle formation. "Shelter" is its doublet, the same word that went down a more everyday path, which is why the old military sense has been preserved in a separate word.

Synonyms: protecting, harboring, shielding, covering, safeguarding

Antonyms: exposing, risking, endangering, vulnerable, abandoning