honor guard
9
4.8
- noun
- /ˈɑːnər ɡɑrd/
- US
:
guardia de honor
- Honor guard, prepare to raise the casket.
Examples
-
They are my father's honor guard.
-
An honor guard stepped onto the stand and positioned itself around the flagpoles.
Fiction book (1991) -
A French honor guard of five men is behind him.
Fiction book (1992) -
Her colleagues from the riot police formed an honor guard.
-
Honor guard, prepare to fire the salute.
-
Morgen invited you to be part of his honor guard.
Fiction book (1991) -
Her body was repatriated with an honor guard consisting of six Marines, and she was given a full Marine burial.
Blog text (27) -
John F. Kennedy Jr. salutes his father's coffin along with the honor guard.
Blog text (12) -
The honor guard escorted them to the airplane, and their leader motioned them up the lowered stair.
Fiction book (2000) -
A horse-drawn caisson and military honor guard led the funeral procession.
Synonyms
∞
1.2
A person whose job is to protect people or property
175
4.0
A person or group who goes with someone to protect them
3
5.0
A group of people who carry a national or military flag during ceremonies
1
4.1
A group of people who stand in line to welcome an important person or honor a dead person
How Ceremonial
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a guard who performs ceremonial duties to honor someone' is directly and compositionally derived from combining 'honor' (to show respect) with 'guard' (a person who protects/escorts). This noun–noun modifier pattern is common cross-linguistically and would be readily comprehensible to a B1 learner who knows both constituent words.
Etymology
Honor guard comes from military ceremonies where soldiers stand at attention and escort an important person or a coffin to show honor. Because guard here means a group who watches and protects, the phrase now means a team that performs formal duties to show 'respect'.