keep guard

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ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Verb

keep guard - watch over so as to protect; "We must stand sentinel to protect ourselves"; "The jewels over which they kept guard were stolen"

stand guard, stand sentinel, stand watch

guard - to keep watch over; "there would be men guarding the horses"

Translations

guard

(gaːd) verb

1. to protect from danger or attack. The soldiers were guarding the king/palace.

2. to prevent (a person) escaping, (something) happening. The soldiers guarded their prisoners; to guard against mistakes.

noun

1. someone who or something which protects. a guard round the king; a guard in front of the fire.

2. someone whose job is to prevent (a person) escaping. There was a guard with the prisoner every hour of the day.

3. (American conductor) a person in charge of a train.

4. the act or duty of guarding.

ˈguarded adjective

cautious. He gave guarded replies.

ˈguardedly adverb

guard of honour

soldiers or other people who are lined up as an honour to someone important. A guard of honour greeted the President at the airport.

keep guard (on)

The soldiers kept guard (on the prisoner).

off guard

unprepared. He hit me while I was off guard; to catch someone off guard.

on guard

prepared. Be on your guard against his tricks.

stand guard

to be on duty as a guard. He stood guard at the gates.

References in classic literature ?

The Wasps said that they would keep guard and drive off thieves with their stings.

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The landlord having taken his seat directly opposite to the door of the parlour, determined to keep guard there the whole night.

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Hector and the other councillors are now holding conference by the monument of great Ilus, away from the general tumult; as for the guards about which you ask me, there is no chosen watch to keep guard over the host.

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The Scoodlers led the captives away and shut them up in one of the houses, leaving only a single Scoodler to keep guard.

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With a word, D'Artagnan reassured them; and Planchet ran to inform the other sentinels that it was useless to keep guard longer, as his master had come out safe from the Palais-Cardinal.

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And these two, thus nurtured and educated, and having learned truly to know their own functions, will rule over the concupiscent, which in each of us is the largest part of the soul and by nature most insatiable of gain; over this they will keep guard, lest, waxing great and strong with the fulness of bodily pleasures, as they are termed, the concupiscent soul, no longer confined to her own sphere, should attempt to enslave and rule those who are not her natural-born subjects, and overturn the whole life of man?

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Reuter had already glided away, she was nowhere visible; a maitresse or teacher, the one who occupied the corresponding estrade to my own, alone remained to keep guard over me; she was a little in the shade, and, with my short sight, I could only see that she was of a thin bony figure and rather tallowy complexion, and that her attitude, as she sat, partook equally of listlessness and affectation.

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"At first she would have nothing to do with his wicked scheme, for she was of a good natural disposition; {30} moreover there was a bard with her, to whom Agamemnon had given strict orders on setting out for Troy, that he was to keep guard over his wife; but when heaven had counselled her destruction, Aegisthus carried this bard off to a desert island and left him there for crows and seagulls to batten upon--after which she went willingly enough to the house of Aegisthus.

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Occasionally the children came with me; when they did so, they would stand some way off and keep guard over us, so as to tell me if anybody came near.