safety
/ˈseɪfti/ noun B1- The condition or feeling of being safe; security; certainty. · If you push it to the limit, safety is not guaranteed.· He managed to reach the border and escape to safety.
- A safety lock or safety catch: a mechanism on a weapon or dangerous equipment designed to prevent accidental firing or operation. · Be sure that the safety is set before proceeding.
- Preservation from escape; close custody.
- 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. · He sacked the quarterback in the end zone for a safety.
- 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. · The free safety made a game-saving tackle on the runner who had broken past the linebackers.
- A safety squeeze.
- A safety shot or sequence of such shots. · That was a poor safety from Higgins.· After thirty minutes of safety, Selby finally potted a red, to ironic cheers.
- A safety bicycle.
Plural safeties
From the library
While I for safety march ahead,
The four travelers passed through the rest of the forest in safety, and when they came out from its gloom saw before them a steep hill, covered from top to bottom with great pieces of rock.
When the Crane had extracted the bone and demanded the promised payment, the Wolf, grinning and grinding his teeth, exclaimed: “Why, you have surely already had a sufficient recompense, in having been permitted to draw out your head in safety from the mouth and jaws of a wolf.”
The Stag, congratulating himself on his safety, began to express his sincere thanks to the Oxen who had kindly helped him in the hour of need.
Other matches
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