一到过年过节，单身的朋友们都会很困扰。各类聚会都会成为家人和朋友逼问“个人问题”的绝佳场合。为了应付这样的情景，不少人在过节的时候会临时找个异性朋友做挡箭牌，好躲过家人朋友们的盘问。在英语里，这样做临时挡箭牌的朋友叫做safety date。

 

Safety date is a person that accompanies you to friend's or family event, in order to give the appearance that you are seeing people and not isolated¹ from society, or avoid being set up on blind dates by well meaning friends.

Safety date（临时伴侣）就是去参加朋友或家庭聚会的时候临时带去的男/女伴，这样做的原因有二：一是为了让人们看到你并没有让自己与世隔绝，还是在跟人交往的；二是为了杜绝朋友们善意安排的相亲的活动。