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".

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.