UNGUARDED

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does unguarded mean? 

• UNGUARDED (adjective)
  The adjective UNGUARDED has 2 senses:

1. lacking protection or a guard

2. displaying or feeling no wariness

  Familiarity information: UNGUARDED used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNGUARDED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lacking protection or a guard

Context example:

his unguarded queen was open to attack

Similar:

vulnerable (susceptible to attack)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Displaying or feeling no wariness

Context example:

an unguarded remark

Similar:

unwary (not alert to danger or deception)

 Context examples 

I have a warm, unguarded temper, and I may have spoken my opinion of him, and to him, too freely.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Then for four hours the despatch-box had lain unguarded?

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I feel that I have betrayed myself perpetually—so unguarded in speaking of my partiality for the church!

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

There might be opportunity for a deft and ripping thrust of paw into the tender, unguarded belly.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

I will not lead you on, unguarded and ardent as I then was, to your destruction and infallible misery.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I had been unguarded.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

But I had fastened the door—I had the key in my pocket: I should have been a careless shepherd if I had left a lamb—my pet lamb—so near a wolf's den, unguarded: you were safe.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

She certainly understands you better than you are understood by the greater part of those who have known you so long; and with regard to some others, I can perceive, from occasional lively hints, the unguarded expressions of the moment, that she could define many as accurately, did not delicacy forbid it.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

What in a situation like mine, but a most shamefully unguarded affection could expose me to—

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

A short absence from home had left his fair one unguarded by his attentions at this critical period, and when he came back he had the pain of finding very altered manners, and of seeing Captain Wentworth.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)