off your guard
- idiom
:
desprevenido
- The question caught him off his guard, and he didn’t know how to respond.
Examples
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She was taken off her guard by the sudden announcement.
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Don’t let them catch you off your guard during the negotiations.
-
He caught me off your guard with his sudden question.
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Don't let your emotions get off your guard!
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She was taken off your guard by the sudden announcement.
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The question caught him off your guard, and he didn’t know how to respond.
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Don’t let them catch you off your guard during the negotiations.
Synonyms
53
4.2
Not aware that someone might harm or trick you
51
4.2
Not ready or paying attention when something happens
29
4.1
Surprised and not ready for something that happens suddenly
8
5.1
Not careful about what you say or do, so you reveal more than you want
6
6.1
A person who is not careful about danger and is easily tricked
3
4.9
Not ready or alert when something surprises you
Not paying attention and not ready for danger or surprise
Not paying attention and not ready for surprise or danger
Surprised and not ready to deal with a sudden problem
Not watching carefully for danger or problems
Not paying attention makes you miss danger or problems
Not aware of danger or risk
Antonyms
How Alert
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines 'off' (indicating not-in-state) with 'your guard' (protective attention), so a learner who knows the constituent meanings can infer 'not prepared or not paying attention.' This composition follows a regular English pattern (e.g. 'off duty', 'off guard') and is cross-linguistically common, making it readily understandable at B1.
Etymology
Off your guard comes from the image of a guard who is off duty or not watching. If the guard is away you are open to danger or surprise, so the phrase means 'not prepared' or 'caught by surprise'.