old guard
16
7.0
- noun
- /oʊld ɡɑrd/
:
vieja guardia
- They want to rid the LE agencies of the old guard because they all think alike.
- old-guard politicians
- old guard of the party
But I think the thing I mean, without you and those old guards, there is no WWE.
- But I think the thing I mean, without you and those old guards, there is no WWE.
- And if they don't work out, they can blame the old guard for at least a while.
- Market makers and the old guard at NASDAQ obviously hated them.
- They want to rid the LE agencies of the old guard because they all think alike.
- And on the other hand, you know, some pushback from the conventional scientific community and some grumbling amongst, you know, the old guard saying not so fast.
- So Max Planck, the physicist, said famously that progress happens one funeral at a time, meaning that the old guard has their points of view.
- Certainly the old guard PLA have long standing relations with the senior party and and KPLA leaders.
- And so the the old guard of pro Internet people never understood this move towards let's build private versions of the Internet.
- And as the old guard is dying off, we're seeing more rapid progress in the way scientists and doctors think about what we can do for patients.
- So I, and they were all old guard people.
- And I went to the old guard.
Examples
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Thankfully, the wheels of time are relentlessly pushing the old guard out of the way.
Blog text (22) -
A lot of the old guard don't believe in my methods.
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The last of the old guard.
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My speech might be a little radical for some of the old guard.
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And of course, who would know better than the old guard of the former USSR?
Blog text (25) -
And the paradigms shift when the old guard dies and a new generation arrives.
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And as the old guard is dying off, we're seeing more rapid progress in the way scientists and doctors think about what we can do for patients.
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The experts are the old guard who have personally witnessed the democratization of the sport.
Academic text (1995) -
Keith Urban: Urban is the last of the old guard of male vocalist nominees this year.
Blog text (31) -
Many members of the organization feel that the old guard is preventing necessary reforms.
Synonyms
112
4.6
People who follow older ideas and ways rather than new ones
Antonyms
How Conservative
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines 'old' (long-standing) with 'guard' (group who protect), so there is a discernible compositional link: it refers to a long-established group that 'guards' an institution. However, the shift from literal security personnel to a figurative conservative faction is a metaphorical extension that many B1 learners may not predict without exposure, despite similar expressions in other languages (e.g., French 'vieille garde', Spanish 'vieja guardia').
Etymology
Old guard comes from the army, where the most experienced soldiers stood beside their leader to protect him. Because these soldiers kept the same ways and defended the leader, the phrase now means a group of long-serving people who 'resist change', with old meaning experienced and guard meaning those who protect.