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off guard

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Idioms and Phrases

Also, off one's guard . Not watchful, easily surprised. It is often put as catch (or be caught) off guard , meaning “take (or be taken) by surprise.” For example, The securities analyst was caught off guard by that financial report , or With any luck the boss will be off guard when I come in late . [Late 1600s] The antonym, on guard or on one's guard , meaning “watchful or prepared, especially to defend oneself,” was first recorded in 1577. For example, In this crowd we must be on guard against pickpockets , or I'm always on my guard when I'm asked how I voted .

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Example Sentences

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As Brontë confronts Joe at gunpoint in the middle of a steamy encounter, he is caught off guard, literally with his pants down.

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At the time, the US was considered to have been caught off guard by their rival's technological achievement.

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"The fact a global superpower such as the US was paying attention to us at all caught us off guard."

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But the weight of the tragedy — and the bizarre juxtapositions of life in the midst of it — often catches him off guard.

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But watching the Trump administration appear to flout those institutions now has caught him off guard and made him fearful about doing his job, he said.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

off-grid offhand

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