To Defend Against
To Protect Against, To Prevent
transitive verb, godan verb
You're doing a prevention. When you prevent something, what are you really doing? You're trying to defend against something from happening. That's why this verb is a little weird and means to defend or to protect against. It can also be to prevent, too, but just make sure you're thinking of it more like you're defending something with your prevention.
Since this word consists of a kanji with hiragana attached, you can bet that it will use the kun'yomi reading. You didn't learn that reading with this kanji, so here's a mnemonic to help you: You want to defend against the enemy? You should probably put out that fuse (ふせ) attached to that giant bomb first then.
地元のゴーストタウン化を防ぐためにも、ゼッタイにこのビジネスを成功させます。
I will definitely make this business a success to prevent my hometown from becoming a ghost town.
食中毒を防ぐためにも、電子レンジでしっかり加熱するようにしてください。
To prevent food poisoning, please make sure to thoroughly heat it in the microwave.
コロナにかかるのを防ぐ方法って今はまだないんで、とりあえずマスクを付けようってなってるんですよ。
Since there's still no way to prevent getting COVID-19, for now, people are just advised to wear masks.