advance guard

== English == === Alternative forms === advance-guard advanced guard === Noun === advance guard (plural advance guards) A unit or units leading the way of advancing or marching troops, guarding them from ambushes, reconnoitering and pursuing the enemy, etc. 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 ==== avant-guard vanguard ==== Translations ====