off-guard

1. 1.

   not prepared or vigilant

   “the blow caught him napping”

   “caught in an off-guard moment”

   “found him off his guard”

   Synonymsnappingoff guardoff one's guardoff his guardoff her guardoff your guard

   Similarunready

Questions about off-guard

What does off-guard mean?

off-guard means "not prepared or vigilant".

How many syllables are in off-guard?

off-guard has 3 syllables: off--gu-ard. The stress falls on "off-".

What is another word for off-guard?

Close synonyms include napping, off guard, off one's guard, off his guard, off her guard. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is off-guard a common word?

off-guard 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.