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

The prolific — and still very active — Bellocchio, who is 85, is considered the greatest living Italian director of the country’s old guard that came of age during the 1960s. —Nick Vivarelli, Variety, 10 Sep. 2025

Shares of Oracle surged 26% in Tuesday’s extended trading hours, after the tech old guard reported that multicloud database revenue from Amazon, Google and Microsoft grew at the eye-popping rate of 1,529% in its last quarter, fueled by demand for AI servers. —Lisa Kailai Han, CNBC, 9 Sep. 2025

While a new generation of young singer-songwriters encroaches on country music’s old guard by the day, the Texas barnstormer has found his footing with a fan base hell-bent on capturing every moment Myers affords them. —Josh Crutchmer, Rolling Stone, 4 Sep. 2025

Moving Monk, a 27-year-old guard in his prime, simply to make room for Westbrook would be a questionable move for Sacramento. —Jason Anderson, Sacbee.com, 29 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1841, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for old guard

• asgard
• backyard
• barnyard
• blackguard
• bombard
• brickyard
• canard
• churchyard
• coastguard
• courtyard
• debarred
• diehard