protective belt—
1. a kind of supportive brace made of highly elastic material:
- Ballesteros wore a protective belt to cushion his aching back.
2. a long narrow strip of forest to protect crops, etc.:
- A sinuous, chaotic river with a thick protective belt of forests became a contained, channelized canal.
safety belt—a strap attached to a seat in a car or airplane to hold the passenger in his seat in the event of an accident :
- He would have been killed if he hadn’t been wearing a safety belt.
Note: The expression is not equivalent in meaning to the compound lifebelt—a large ring used to keep a person afloat and prevent him from drowning:
- The lifelines—easier to use and more accurate than lifebelts—were provided.