Definition of "tutelary" [tutelary]

• Being or serving as a guardian or protector: tutelary gods. (adjective)
• Of or relating to a guardian or guardianship. (adjective)
• One that serves as a guardian or protector. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The social motives may be called tutelary, as tending to restrain from mischievous intentions; but any motive may become tutelary on occasion."
• "But we stayed not here to see the sights -- not even the droll little statue of the Mannikin (at the corner of a street, in a most improper attitude; and there is a Group quite as unseemly in one of the Markets, so I was told, although at that time we were fain to pass them by), which Mannikin the burgesses of Bruxelles regard as a kind of tutelary Divinity, and set much greater store by than do we by our London Stone, or Little Naked Boy in Panyer Alley."
• "He makes the various threats be they windmills or Inquisition torture seem real and inevitable while making the whimsical and, ultimately, delusional escapades seem possible, tutelary, and entertaining."