From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishrearguardrear‧guard /ˈrɪəɡɑːd $ ˈrɪrɡɑːrd/ noun 1 → fight a rearguard action2 [singular] the group of soldiers who defend the back of an army against an enemy that is chasing it
Examples from the Corpus
rearguard• With their captain and inspiration, Roy Aitken, suspended, Saints seemed to have come prepared to fight a rearguard action.• Let us try a rearguard action to confine its scope to peripheral cases.• From an Arsenal rearguard action the ball would, seemingly inevitably, reach Alex.• The troops remaining in the islands fought a bitter rearguard action.• The best that propaganda could do was to emphasise the courage of Leonidas and his rearguard.• Oldham's attack had a fruitless afternoon against a Rovers' rearguard in which Kevin Moran was outstanding.• They arrived too late to save Praag but did destroy part of the Chaos army's rearguard.• On machines however, a tough rearguard action was fought by the employers.Origin rearguard (1400-1500) Old French reregarde, from rere “behind” (from Latin retro-) + garde “guard” 