guard
/ɡɑːd//ɡɑɹd/
guard noun: a person who, or thing that, protects or watches over something.
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Noun
guard (plural guards)
- A person who, or thing that, protects or watches over something.
- The prison guard unlocked the door of the cell. After completing the repairs, he replaced the sump guard.
- border guard, prison guard, security guard
- A garda; a police officer.
- The Garda Regulations 1924 required a candidate for appointment as a guard to be able to produce satisfactory references as to his character2016, Anastasia Dukova, A History of the Dublin Metropolitan Police and its Colonial Legacy, Springer, →ISBN, page 139
- A squad responsible for protecting something.
- The president inspected the guard of honour.
- An elite military unit in Russia, the former Soviet Union and several post-Soviet countries.
- The part of a sword that protects the wielder's hand.
- Holonym: hilt
- Synonyms:
- crossguard, quillon
- A part of a machine which blocks access to dangerous parts.
- The motorcycle mechanic removed the damaged chain guard.
- Synonyms:
- protection
- A watchchain.
- A panel of a car that encloses the wheel area, especially the front wheels.
- Another possible way is to go for a lower profile tyre (50 series). This effectively lowers the distance of the tyre wall away from the guard (not by much though and generally, the lower the profile, the wider the tyre so the tyre may stick out more as well).1996 December 24, Pendles, “Tyres rubbing on guards”, in aus.cars (Usenet)
- The reason I'm asking - Whenever I put some weight in the back of the car (say - a passenger or two) the rear tyres can sometimes hit the guards.1999 November 23, Nathan, “Tyres rubbing on guards”, in aus.cars (Usenet)
- Synonyms:
- fender
- A state of caution; posture of defence.
- Something worn to protect part of the body, e.g. the shins in cricket.
- A relatively short player, playing farther from the basket than a forward or centre.
- The position on the popping crease where a batsman makes a mark to align himself with the wicket; see take guard.
- Either of two offensive positions between the centre and each of the offensive tackles, whose main responsibilities are to protect the quarterback, and open up "holes" through which offensive players can run.
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- A ground grappling position in which one combatant has their back to the ground while attempting to control the other combatant using their legs.
- A player playing a position named guard.
- An employee, normally travelling in the last vehicle of a train, responsible for the safety of the train.
- When an engineer wished to stop a swiftly moving train he had first to whistle to the guard requesting him to apply the hand-brake of the van, and then apply the hand-brake of the engine. Guards did not always hear.1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter IX, in Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, published 1943, page 141
- A Boolean expression that must evaluate to true for a branch of program execution to continue.
- The aircraft emergency frequency, a radio frequency reserved for emergency communications, typically 121.5MHz for civilian use.
Verb
guard (third-person singular simple present guards, present participle guarding, simple past and past participle guarded)
- To protect from danger; to secure against surprise, attack, or injury; to keep in safety; to defend.
- All of the mountain passes are guarded by troops.
- For Heaven still guards the right.1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to...
- To keep watch over, in order to prevent escape or restrain from acts of violence, or the like.
- Guard the prisoner.
- To watch by way of caution or defense; to be cautious; to be in a state or position of defense or safety.
- Careful people guard against mistakes.
- To protect the edge of, especially with an ornamental border; hence, to face or ornament with lists, laces, etc.
- The body of your discourse is sometime guarded with fragments, and the guards are but slightly basted on neither.1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- To fasten by binding; to gird.
Proper noun capitalized: Guard
Guard (plural Guards)
- A surname.
- Please deliver this package to Mr Guard.
- Ellipsis of the proper name of any of various specific services called the National Guard, the Republican Guard, and so on.
- I was 19 when I joined the Guard. The Guard provides a small pension to members who retire with enough years of service.
guard meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
guard in Hindi
- person who or thing that protects something
- प्रहरी prahrī, रक्षक rakṣak, पासबान pāsbān, मुहाफ़िज़ muhāfiz, संरक्षक sanrakṣak, रखवाला rakhvālā
guard in Tamil
- to keep watch over
- கா kā
guard in Urdu
- person who or thing that protects something
- مُحافِظ muḥāfiz̤
guard in Bengali
- person who or thing that protects something
- রক্ষী rokkhi, মহাফেজ mohaphej
More languagesFewer languages
- guard in Sanskrit
- रक्षति rakṣati
- guard in Tagalog
- guwardiya, bantay, guwardiyahan
- guard in Arabic
- حَارِس ḥāris, حَرَسَ ḥarasa
- guard in Indonesian
- pengawal, garda
- guard in Thai
- ยาม yaam, บริบาล bɔɔ-rí-baan
- guard in Vietnamese
- vệ sĩ
- guard in Myanmar
- ကင်း kang:, အစောင့် a.caung., အထိန်း a.htin:
- Kashmiri
- روچھ rōch, رٲچھدَر rạ̄chdar, پاسبان pāsbān
Examples of guard in a sentence
- When the boxer let down his guard, his opponent clocked him.
- The woman guarding us looks like a professional, but I can take her!
- The guard launched a desperate lob over the outstretched arms of the defender.
Synonyms of guard
Forms of guard
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | guards |
| alternative form (obsolete) | gard |
| alternative form (obsolete) | garde |
| alternative form (obsolete) | guarde |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | guards |
| present participle | guarding |
| past participle | guarded |
| past | guarded |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Guards |
Origin of guard
From Middle English garde, from early Middle French or late Old French guarde (“a guardian, warden, keeper”) (whence modern French garde), from the verb guarder. Doublet of garda, which is from Irish.
From early Middle French garder or late Old French (circa 14th cent) guarder (“to keep, ward, guard, save, preserve, etc.”), from Early Medieval Latin wardo, from Frankish *wardēn, from Proto-Germanic *wardāną (“to guard, protect”). Cognate with French garder, Old English weardian (whence also the English inherited doublet ward). See also English regard.
The surname sense is an occupational surname for a watchman, from guard. The organization sense is likewise a type of proprialization from guard.
Words formed from guard
- advance guard
- advance-guard
- after-guard
- afterguard
- armguard
- ass guard
- avant-guard
- axle guard
- blackguard
- bodyguard
- border guard
- bow-guard
- bowguard
- bow guard
- breath guard
- car guard
- castle-guard
- cattle-guard
- cattle guard
- cattleguard
- chainguard
- chain guard
- change of the guard
- changing of the guard
- cheek guard
- chestguard
- chin guard
- chinguard
- Civil Guard
- coast guard
- coastguard
- color guard
- colour guard
- corporal's guard
- counterguard
- crossguard
- crossing guard
- dress guard
- drop one's guard
- enguard
- faceguard
- fingerguard
- fireguard
- fire guard
- footguard
- foreguard
- gate guard
- grand guard
- grand-guard
- grille guard
- guard against
- guard band
- guard book
- guard cell
- guard dog
- guard-dog
- guardess
- guardfish
- guardful
- guard hair
Phrases with guard
- on guard
- arm guard
- new guard
- off guard
- old guard
- rat guard
- red guard
- foot guard
- guard dogs
- guard lock
- guard post
- guard rail
95 more phrasesFewer phrases
- guard ship
- hand guard
- Home Guard
- Iron Guard
- knee guard
- land guard
- main guard
- neck guard
- nose guard
- pole guard
- rash guard
- shin guard
- snow guard
- spit guard
- take guard
- tape guard
- tard guard
- took guard
- grill guard
- guard bands
- guard books
- guard cells
- guard hairs
- guard locks
- guard posts
- guard rails
- guard ships
- guard stone
- honor guard
- horse guard
- macro guard
- mouth guard
- point guard
- skirt guard
- stand guard
- stood guard
- Swiss Guard
- taken guard
- takes guard
- finger guard
- guard stones
- gutter guard
- header guard
- honour guard
- middle guard
- nipple guard
- prison guard
- sneeze guard
- splash guard
- stands guard
- taking guard
- guard station
- include guard
- run the guard
- trigger guard
- guard mounting
- guard of honor
- guard stations
- occlusal guard
- on one's guard
- security guard
- shooting guard
- standing guard
- guard mountings
- guard of honour
- off one's guard
- offensive guard
- horse guard wasp
- Republican Guard
- drops one's guard
- guard of vambrace
- horse guard wasps
- lower one's guard
- guard one's tongue
- had one's guard up
- has one's guard up
- lowers one's guard
- dropped one's guard
- have one's guard up
- keep one's guard up
- kept one's guard up
- lowered one's guard
- yeoman of the guard
- yeomen of the guard
- changes of the guard
- dropping one's guard
- keeps one's guard up
- let one's guard down
- lowering one's guard
- having one's guard up
- lets one's guard down
- without welt or guard
- changings of the guard
- keeping one's guard up
- letting one's guard down
Words that rhyme with guard
Questions about guard
- What does guard mean?
- Guard means a person who, or thing that, protects or watches over something.
- What is guard in Hindi?
- Guard in Hindi is प्रहरी (prahrī), रक्षक (rakṣak), पासबान (pāsbān). See Guard meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is guard?
- Guard can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce guard?
- Guard is pronounced /ɡɑːd/ (UK).
- What is the plural of guard?
- The plural of guard is guards.
Words near guard in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: guard (page history and authors); Guard (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-guard.ogg, EN-AU ck1 guard.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-guard.wav.
Cite this entry: “guard.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/guard. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.