Word.ws English Dictionary

on one's guard

on one's guard prepositional phrase: in a watchful state; alert; vigilant.

Prepositional phrase

  1. In a watchful state; alert; vigilant.
    • Be on your guard against pickpockets in the railway station.
    • One had to be on one's guard when thus confronted and, in the course of my numerous meetings with him, I had on occasion to exercise all my wits and be prepared at a moment's notice to parry a very awkward question, to which I would much rather have given a considered reply.1944 March and April, Chas. S. Lake, “Some C.M.Es. I Have Known: VIII—Sir H. N. Gresley”, in Railway Magazine, page 74
    Synonyms:
    on the alert

Synonyms of on one's guard

Questions about on one's guard

What does on one's guard mean?
On one's guard means in a watchful state; alert; vigilant.
What part of speech is on one's guard?
On one's guard is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on one's guard in the dictionary

  1. on one's bill
  2. on one's conscience
  3. on one's deathbed
  4. on one's feet
  5. on one's game
  6. on one's guard
  7. on one's hands and knees
  8. on one's head
  9. on one's high horse
  10. on one's honor
  11. on one's Jack Jones

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on one's 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:

Cite this entry: “on one's guard.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_one%27s_guard. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.