en garde

1. 1.

   (fencing) in a defensive stance

   Similardefensive

Questions about en garde

What does en garde mean?

en garde means "(fencing) in a defensive stance".

Is en garde a common word?

en garde is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.