UNPROTECTED

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does unprotected mean? 

• UNPROTECTED (adjective)
  The adjective UNPROTECTED has 1 sense:

1. lacking protection or defense

  Familiarity information: UNPROTECTED used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNPROTECTED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lacking protection or defense

Similar:

exposed; open (with no protection or shield)

defenseless; naked (having no protecting or concealing cover)

unshielded ((used especially of machinery) not protected by a shield)

Also:

insecure; unsafe (lacking in security or safety)

susceptible ((often followed by 'of' or 'to') yielding readily to or capable of)

vulnerable (susceptible to attack)

Antonym:

protected (kept safe or defended from danger or injury or loss)

Derivation:

unprotectedness (the property of being helpless in the face of attack)

 Context examples 

The captain's order to mount at once and ride for Doctor Livesey would have left my mother alone and unprotected, which was not to be thought of.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Outside his own domain, and unprotected, he was a very sheep for the shearers.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I thought also of my father and surviving brother; should I by my base desertion leave them exposed and unprotected to the malice of the fiend whom I had let loose among them?

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

The fact that a somewhat dilapidated blue one remained stationary above the unprotected bonnet attracted her attention, and looking up, she saw Mr. Bhaer looking down.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

It appears to me so very unlikely that any young man should form such a design against a girl who is by no means unprotected or friendless, and who was actually staying in his colonel's family, that I am strongly inclined to hope the best.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

During my absence I should leave my friends unconscious of the existence of their enemy and unprotected from his attacks, exasperated as he might be by my departure.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

If the mutineers succeeded in crossing the stockade, he argued, they would take possession of any unprotected loophole and shoot us down like rats in our own stronghold.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

He says, publicly, that if they want anything he'll give it 'em. He names individuals among them (myself included), whom he could undertake to settle with one hand, and the other tied behind him. He waylays the smaller boys to punch their unprotected heads, and calls challenges after me in the open streets. For these sufficient reasons I resolve to fight the butcher.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)