Unguarded

ppl. a. [UN-¹ 8.]

  1.  Not furnished with, or protected by, a guard; left undefended or open to attack, spoliation, etc.

a. 1593.  Marlowe, Ovid’s Elegies, III. iv. 26. Few loue what others haue vnguarded left.

1626.  Mead, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. I. III. 250. I hear some of opinion that the Duke likes not so unguarded a place.

1697.  Dryden, Æneis, XII. 817. He views the unguarded city from afar, In careless quiet, and secure of war.

1741–2.  Gray, Agrippina, 5. Alone, unguarded and without a lictor.

1781.  Gibbon, Decl. & F., xxxi. III. 193. His troops … occupied the unguarded passes of the Apennine.

1824.  Miss L. M. Hawkins, Annaline, III. 40. [He] made off and left the door unguarded.

1869.  Tozer, Highl. Turkey, I. 208. We used to ride … through the country unarmed and unguarded.

1885.  Manch. Exam., 13 Jan., 5/3. A small body … entered the town by an unguarded gate.

  b.  In fig. contexts.

1673.  [R. Leigh], Transp. Reh., 39. This is Momba’s and De Groot’s doings, to leave this passage open and ungarded.

a. 1704.  T. Brown, Sat. agst. Woman, Wks. 1730, I. 56. Thus all the unguarded passes of his mind she’ll try.

  c.  transf. In chess or card-playing: Not protected by other pieces or cards.

1808.  Hoyle’s Game of Chess, 46, note. Your knight will then defend your king’s pawn, otherwise unguarded.

1862.  ‘Cavendish,’ Whist (1864), 95. Queen singly guarded may make a trick, but the ten of clubs unguarded cannot.

  2.  Not on one’s guard; not taking heed or exercising caution. Chiefly fig.

1640.  Fletcher, etc., Coronat., IV. i. ad fin. I … have not A thought so much unguarded, as to be won From my truth, and innocence.

1697.  Dryden, Æneis, XII. 1058. Rais’d on the Stretch, young Turnus aims a blow, Full on the Helm of his unguarded Foe.

a. 1763.  W. King, Polit. & Lit. Anecd. (1819), 44. Sir Robert [Walpole] was frequently very unguarded in his expressions.

1796.  Mme. D’Arblay, Camilla, IV. 185. The unsuspicious frankness of an unguarded, because innocent nature.

1840.  Lady Lyttelton, Corr. (1912), 298. Such a new thing for her to dare to be unguarded in conversation with anybody.

1881.  Jowett, Thucyd., I. 186. The general who … never loses an opportunity of striking at an unguarded foe.

  b.  Of times: Characterized by the absence of guard or caution.

1680.  Otway, Orphan, I. I’ll yet possess her love, Wait on and watch her loose unguarded hours.

1776.  Gibbon, Decl. & F., xii. I. 336. An active enemy … must, in the end, discover some feeble spot or some unguarded moment.

1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xv. III. 596. It is highly probable that his mother … took a fatal advantage of some unguarded hour, when he was irritated by finding his advice slighted.

  c.  Of expressions, actions, etc.: Incautious, imprudent; careless.

1714.  S. Ockley, in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden), 350. If a person should … upon the account of an unguarded expression … suffer a capital sentence.

1751.  Earl Orrery, Remarks Swift, ix. (1757), 114. A picture … drawn in too loose a garment, and too unguarded a posture.

1827.  Lytton, Falkland, 37. I have watched feeling in its unguarded sallies. Ibid. (1835), Rienzi, X. vii. Their gestures were vehement and unguarded.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vii. II. 163. Every unguarded word uttered by him was noted down.

  3.  Not protected, screened, or fenced off, by some arrangement or device.

1771.  Luckombe, Hist. Print., 240. d, f, l, when they stand with their beaks unguarded,… run as great a hazard [of being broken].

1784.  Cowper, Task, IV. 469. Ev’ry twentieth pace Conducts th’ unguarded nose to such a whiff Of stale debauch.

1844.  Noad, Electricity (ed. 2), 80. Decomposing water by current alone, and with unguarded poles.

1872.  Howells, Wedding Journ. (1892), 177. The road…, next the precipice, is unguarded by any sort of parapet.

1900.  Westm. Gaz., 2 May, 6/3. Dust or gas … ignited by an unguarded lamp.

  Hence Unguardedness.

1825–9.  Mrs. Sherwood, Lady of Manor, IV. xxvii. 282. That sort of unguardedness which consists in supposing all around one to be well-intentioned.

1887.  Women’s Union Jrnl., 15 Dec., 94. A moment of optical unguardedness, when … eve-glasses lay on a table before him.