Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Milit., a body of troops or other force marching or stationed in front of the main body to clear the way, guard against surprise, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Alternative spelling of advance guard.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Custer attacked this advance-guard and had a spirited fight, in which he drove the Confederates away from the station, captured twenty-five pieces of artillery, a hospital train, and a large park of wagons, which, in the hope that they would reach Lynchburg next day, were being pushed ahead of Lee's main body.

    She Makes Her Mouth Small & Round & Other Stories 2010

  • These regiments set off at a gallop, and in short order broke up the railroad enough to prevent the escape of the trains, Custer meanwhile taking possession of the station, but none too soon, for almost at the moment he did so the advance-guard of Lee's army appeared, bent on securing the trains.

    She Makes Her Mouth Small & Round & Other Stories 2010

  • Barth's offenses, just in case the students were thinking of buying it, is Giles Goat-Boy, which Gardner tells them is "arch, extravagantly self-indulgent, clumsily allegorical, pedantic, tiresomely and pretentiously advance-guard, and like much of our 'new fiction', puerilely obscene."

    MFA Rock 2009

  • Barth's offenses, just in case the students were thinking of buying it, is Giles Goat-Boy, which Gardner tells them is "arch, extravagantly self-indulgent, clumsily allegorical, pedantic, tiresomely and pretentiously advance-guard, and like much of our 'new fiction', puerilely obscene."

    Monsters of Academia (Updated) 2008

  • Barth's offenses, just in case the students were thinking of buying it, is Giles Goat-Boy, which Gardner tells them is "arch, extravagantly self-indulgent, clumsily allegorical, pedantic, tiresomely and pretentiously advance-guard, and like much of our 'new fiction', puerilely obscene."

    April 2008 2008

  • At eleven o'clock, unobserved but by this official audience, down the Boulevard Waterloo came the advance-guard of the German army.

    Advance into Belgium de Brantigny........................ 2008

  • Barth's offenses, just in case the students were thinking of buying it, is Giles Goat-Boy, which Gardner tells them is "arch, extravagantly self-indulgent, clumsily allegorical, pedantic, tiresomely and pretentiously advance-guard, and like much of our 'new fiction', puerilely obscene."

    Monsters of Academia (Updated) 2008

  • At eleven o'clock, unobserved but by this official audience, down the Boulevard Waterloo came the advance-guard of the German army.

    Archive 2008-07-27 de Brantigny........................ 2008

  • And often they lit other fires in their rear as well, to deceive the enemy; so that at times the Assyrian scouts actually fell in with the advance-guard, having fancied from the distance of the fires that they were still some way from the encampment.

    Cyropaedia 2007

  • Evidently the Nigerians had seen none of the Karamzili advance-guard that had been streaming northward from the encampment during the night.

    Death Stalks The Ruins Adams, Stephen 2005

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