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Preclude vs Protect - What's the difference?

preclude | protect |

As verbs the difference between preclude and protect

is that preclude is remove the possibility of; rule out; prevent or exclude; to make impossible while protect is to keep safe; to defend; to guard; to prevent harm coming to.

preclude

English

Alternative forms

* (obsolete)

Verb

(preclud)
  • Remove the possibility of; (l); prevent or exclude; to make (l).
    • It has been raining for days, but that doesn’t preclude the possibility that the skies will clear by this afternoon!
  • * {{quote-web
    • , date = 2013-08-09 , author = Douglas Main , title = Israel Outlaws Water Fluoridation , site = livescience , url = http://www.livescience.com/38796-israel-outlaws-water-fluoridation.html , accessdate = 2013-09-30 }}
    Israel's decision to ban fluoridation follows a vote to preclude the practice in Portland, Ore., and Wichita, Kan. It was also recently overturned in Hamilton, the fourth most populous city in New Zealand.

    Derived terms

    * precludable * preclusion * preclusive * preclusively

    protect

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To keep safe; to defend; to guard; to prevent harm coming to.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03
    • , author=William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter , title=The British Longitude Act Reconsidered , volume=100, issue=2, page=87 , magazine= citation , passage=But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.}}

    Synonyms

    * (l) * See also

    Derived terms

    * protection * To protect and to serve