off his 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 guardoff one's guardoff her guardoff your guard

   Similarunready

Questions about off his guard

What does off his guard mean?

off his guard means "not prepared or vigilant".

What is another word for off his guard?

Close synonyms include napping, off-guard, off guard, off one's 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 his guard a common word?

off his guard is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.