old guard

noun

variants or less commonly Old Guard
1
: the conservative and especially older members of an organization (such as a political party)
2
: a group of established prestige and influence

compare new guard

Examples of old guard in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Beyond the 22-year-old Podziemski, 22-year-old power forward Jonathan Kuminga, 23-year-old guard Moses Moody, 25-year-old center Quinten Post, and 27-year-old guard De'Anthony Melton all figure to carve out serious roles on the team this season — and could all, conceivably, level up as competitors. Alex Kirschenbaum, MSNBC Newsweek, 6 Oct. 2025 The 25-year-old guard has started 150 career NBA games, but nearly all of those games (143) came as a member of a bad Houston Rockets team from 2020-23. Eric Nehm, New York Times, 2 Oct. 2025 That didn’t happen as President of Basketball Operations Lawrence Frank signed 37-year-old center Brook Lopez, 40-year-old future Hall of Fame guard Chris Paul, the second-oldest player in the league, and 32-year-old guard Bradley Beal. Janis Carr, Oc Register, 27 Sep. 2025 Some of our old guard would be old. Jordan Moreau, Variety, 24 Sep. 2025 See All Example Sentences for old guard

Word History

First Known Use

1841, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of old guard was in 1841

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Cite this Entry

“Old guard.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/old%20guard. Accessed 10 Oct. 2025.

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