掩护

• Pinyin: yǎn hù
• Hanzi breakdown: 掩 = 扌(hand) + 奄 (sudden cover — a hand thrown over to hide); 护 = 扌(hand) + 户 (door/household — a hand placed at the door to guard it)

Meaning

To cover; to provide cover for; to shield. To protect someone or something by creating a diversion, providing physical protection, or acting as a screen — especially in military or covert contexts.

Military origin, now also used figuratively: 以…为掩护 (using … as a cover). Common contexts: 火力掩护 (fire cover), 为战友掩护撤退 (covering a comrade's retreat), 以商业身份为掩护的间谍 (a spy using a business identity as cover). Less about physical obstruction, more about strategic protection or deception.

Examples

1. 侦察小队趁着夜色的掩护悄无声息地越过了封锁线，顺利完成了目标区域的情报收集任务。 Under the cover of night, the reconnaissance squad silently crossed the blockade line and successfully completed its intelligence-gathering mission in the target area.
2. 他以货运公司老板的身份为掩护，实际上长期为境外情报机构传递敏感信息，最终被国家安全部门识破。 Using the identity of a freight company owner as cover, he in fact spent years passing sensitive information to a foreign intelligence agency, until national security authorities uncovered him.
3. 在实战演习中，前方突击队依靠后方炮兵提供的密集火力掩护，成功突破了模拟防御阵地的核心区域。 In a live-fire exercise, the assault team in front relied on dense artillery cover from the rear and successfully broke through the core of the simulated defensive position.

Usage Guide

Context: military, espionage, tactics, figurative

Tone: neutral

Do Say

• 特战队员在执行渗透任务时，通常会利用当地平民的身份作为掩护，以避免引起敌方的注意和怀疑，确保行动的隐蔽性。(When special forces soldiers carry out infiltration missions, they typically use local civilian identities as cover to avoid attracting the enemy's attention and suspicion, ensuring the concealment of the operation.)
• 这支歌舞团的公开巡演只是掩护，其核心成员实际上是一个专门从事文物走私的跨国犯罪网络的重要组成部分。(The touring performances of this song-and-dance troupe were merely a cover; its core members were in fact key components of a transnational criminal network specialising in the smuggling of cultural relics.)

Don't Say

• 他掩护了我的错误 — 掩护 is about protective cover or strategic shielding, not concealing someone's personal mistakes from criticism; say 他帮我掩盖了错误 or 他替我打了掩护 for the colloquial sense of covering for someone's blunder

Origin & History

掩 (to cover/conceal — 扌hand + 奄 to cover) + 护 (to protect/guard — 扌hand + 户 household, a hand guarding the door)

Cultural Context

Era: Modern

Generation: All ages

Social background: Universal