Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A person or group of persons, usually armed, responsible for the safety of one or more other persons.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who protects or defends the person; a life-guard; collectively, the guard charged with the protection of some person, as a prince or an officer; hence, retinue; attendance; following.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A guard or group of guards to protect or defend the person; a lifeguard.
  • noun Retinue; attendance; following.

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

  • noun A person or group of persons, often armed, responsible for protecting an individual.
  • verb transitive To act as bodyguard for (someone); figuratively, to protect.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb accompany and protect from physical harm
  • noun someone who escorts and protects a prominent person
  • noun a group of men who escort and protect some important person

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

body +‎ guard

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Examples

Comments

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  • "... Tammy uncovered a smuggled abalone shipment worth millions of rand. Shortly afterward, John's cell phone rang.

    'We're going to get your dog,' a low, terse voice hissed. 'We know where it hides.'

    He heard a click, the dial tone, and the echo of someone who wanted his dog dead. That threatening phone call was the first of many...

    The solution proved simple and effective: Tammy got a bodyguard. Tammy was relaxing in her police kennel when she first saw her new protector, a big, lumbering German shepherd. Mac was a police attack dog with years of duty in drug busts.... In minutes, Tammy and her protector were racing around the kennel play area, instant bosom buddies."

    —Merrily Weisbord and Kim Kachanoff, Dogs with Jobs: Working Dogs Around the World (NY and London: Pocket Books, 2000), 241–242

    July 28, 2009