Ward off

He raised his arms to ward off the attack.

Door guards are a detail that can be added readily to almost any garage door for the purpose of protecting the door from being broken off the hinges or for the protection that is afforded the customers of the garage. The simplest form of these are inclined slides for warding off the front or rear wheels of the entering car.

Double plate glass windows and central heating ward off the rigours of the northern winter.

Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.

He wore garlic to ward off vampires.

Group 2, the never or prophylactic group, was also small compared with group 1. Iodine lockets, string shirts, underwear made of special material such as flannel (particularly red), sheep wool, angora wool, clothes made of modern synthetic fibres, and so on, would ward off arthritis.