Dictionary

molly-guard en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈmɑli ɡɑɹd/ (US)
• /ˈmɒli ɡɑːd/ (UK)

Etymology

From Molly (female given name) + guard. Originally a Plexiglas cover improvised for the Big Red Switch on an IBM 4341 mainframe after a programmer's toddler daughter (named Molly) tripped it twice in one day. Later generalised to covers over stop/reset switches on disk drives and networking equipment.

Meanings

1. A physical barrier to protect something from unwanted contact, especially a shield to prevent accidental tripping of an emergency shutdown or power switch.
   • 1998 August 10, kensmark, “Vi versus Word. The pros and cons (or why does Vi remiond me of a bigger version of notepad?)”, rec.arts.sf.composition, Usenet, Therefore, we have many "molly guards," which are kludged covers that protect the on/off switch and keep you from hitting it by accident.
   • The radial heat losses are minimized by the Molly Guard foil which establishes a linear temperature profile between the hot heater housing and the water cooled base plate. 1978, Proceedings of the 13th Intersociety Energy Conversion Engineering Conference, volume 3, Society of Automotive Engineers, page 1948:
   • There is a plastic molly-guard covering the escalator's shutdown button to prevent little kids from pushing it and stopping the escalator.
   • To include switch, cut-out and molly guard, you'll probably need to order at least two, probably three components. 2008 September 6, Simon Slavin, “Manual on/off switch with electrical off-trip?”, in uk.comp.sys.mac (Usenet):

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