vanguard

3 definitions found

vanguard - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Vanguard \Van"guard`\, n. [For vantguard, avantguard, F.
     avant-garde; avant before, fore + garde guard. See Avant,
     Ab-,Ante-, and Guard, and cf. Advance, Vamp, Van
     of an army, Vaward.] (Mil.)
     The troops who march in front of an army; the advance guard;
     the van.
     [1913 Webster]

vanguard - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  vanguard
      n 1: the leading units moving at the head of an army [syn:
           vanguard, van]
      2: any creative group active in the innovation and application
         of new concepts and techniques in a given field (especially
         in the arts) [syn: avant-garde, vanguard, van, new   wave
         ]
      3: the position of greatest importance or advancement; the
         leading position in any movement or field; "the Cotswolds
         were once at the forefront of woollen manufacturing in
         England"; "the idea of motion was always to the forefront of
         his mind and central to his philosophy" [syn: vanguard,
         forefront, cutting edge]

vanguard - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :

  81 Moby Thesaurus words for "vanguard":
     advance guard, airhead, ancestor, announcer, antecedent,
     armed guard, avant-garde, bank guard, battle line, beachhead,
     bellwether, bridgehead, buccinator, bushwhacker, coast guard,
     cordon, cordon sanitaire, explorer, farthest outpost, first line,
     forebear, forefront, foregoer, forerunner, front, front line,
     front rank, front runner, front-runner, frontiersman, fugleman,
     garrison, goalie, goalkeeper, goaltender, groundbreaker, guard,
     guarder, guardsman, guide, harbinger, herald, inlying picket,
     innovation, innovator, jailer, latest fad, latest fashion,
     latest wrinkle, lead runner, leader, line, messenger, new look,
     newfangled device, novelty, outguard, outpost, pathfinder, picket,
     pioneer, point, precedent, precursor, predecessor, railhead,
     rear guard, scout, security guard, spearhead, stormy petrel,
     the in thing, the last word, the latest thing, trailblazer,
     trailbreaker, train guard, van, vaunt-courier, voortrekker,
     warder