advance guard

See also: advance-guard

English

Alternative forms

Noun

advance guard (plural advance guards)

  1. A unit or units leading the way of advancing or marching troops, guarding them from ambushes, reconnoitering and pursuing the enemy, etc.
  2. An individual soldier in the same role.

Quotations
  • Every precaution was taken; and in some of the denser portions of the jungle they regularly felt their way with advance guards and flankers, who, poor fellows, had a most tough job to force their way through the tangled creepers and undergrowth. — G.M. Fenn, "Middy and Ensign", 1883.
  • Each attacking column was divided into three parts, a forlorn hope of twenty men leading, which was followed by an advance guard of one hundred and twenty, and then by the main body. — Theodore Roosevelt, "Hero Tales From American History", 1895
  • My native land is one of those rugged isles which form the advance-guard of Scotland in the Northern Ocean. — R.M. Ballantyne, "The Crew of the Water Wagtail", 1875

Synonyms

Translations
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