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civil defense
noun
: the system of protective measures and emergency relief activities conducted by civilians in case of hostile attack, sabotage, or natural disaster
Examples of civil defense in a Sentence
She's in training to be part of the local civil defense.
the head of civil defense
Recent Examples on the Web
About 136 people have also been reported to be missing, the state's civil defense authority has said, as per Reuters.
—Saman Shafiq, USA TODAY, 9 May 2024
The state's civil defense reported that nearly half of its 497 cities have been affected.
—Fox News, 3 May 2024
Nearly 10,000 people have been forced to flee their homes, the civil defense agency in Rio Grande do Sul said in a statement.
—Ana Ionova, New York Times, 2 May 2024
The fighting also decimated the hospital, and the Palestinian civil defense says hundreds of bodies, many of them civilians, are still being recovered in the city, which is sparsely populated these days compared with Rafah.
—Jane Arraf, NPR, 26 Apr. 2024
The burial area was built when the Israeli military was besieging the Nasser Hospital facility last month, the civil defense said, as people were not able to bury the dead in a cemetery.
—NBC News, 22 Apr. 2024
Israeli forces remained in the hospital compound Tuesday, according to Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for Gaza’s civil defense.
—Hazem Balousha, Washington Post, 19 Mar. 2024
The dataset also included some Palestinian civil defense workers.
—David Meyer, Fortune, 4 Apr. 2024
Forty-two municipalities of the 62 in the state were in an emergency situation with more than 300,000 people affected, the civil defense authority told CNN Monday.
—Laura Paddison, CNN, 10 Oct. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'civil defense.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
First Known Use
1939, in the meaning defined above
Dictionary Entries Near civil defense
Cite this Entry
“Civil defense.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/civil%20defense. Accessed 21 May. 2024.
Kids Definition
civil defense
noun
: protective actions and emergency relief activities carried on by civilians in case of enemy attack or natural disaster
More from Merriam-Webster on civil defense
Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about civil defense
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