They are certainly acting in a protective manner.

Julia's head whipped toward the voice, her hands flying up in a protective manner as she flattened herself against the building at her back.

Later, Otto Pollak (1950) claimed that men were socialised to treat women in a fatherly and protective manner.

The Talaxian pressed the tribble, which had almost stopped its frightened quivering, to his chest in a protective manner, and hurried out of the laboratory.

Now possessing nearly unlimited power himself, he feels additional responsibility to behave in a compassionate and protective manner to others similarly threatened.

His protective manner, and his sureness, and his intimacy, puzzled her.

She hadn't told him about Cassius, yet his expression was tight and he'd immediately moved closer to her in a protective manner.

He asked concernedly after her injuries, and congratulated her upon her escape in a most protective manner.

Without thinking she curled her legs up underneath herself in a somewhat protective manner.

Medications should be disposed of in a safe and environmentally protective manner.