1701 Heaven-drivers 12 He strutted off as great as Lord, Seven Ban-Dogs for his Body-Guard.

1704 View Reign Charles I 5 A Troop of Horse,..which, with one Regiment of Train'd-Bands, was his Body-Guard.

1768 A. Tucker Light of Nature Pursued II. 182 That body-guard of Popery the Jesuits.

1820 W. Scott Abbot II. vi. 186 A page is a formidable addition to my body-guard of females.

1847 G. Grote Hist. Greece III. ii. xi. 207 The number of the body-guard was not long confined to fifty, and probably their clubs were soon exchanged for sharper weapons.

1858 J. Martineau Stud. Christianity 72 Defended by a body-guard of passions.

1932 A. Bell Cherry Tree v. 58 A varnished joint of beef sat on white American cloth behind a bodyguard of four beer-bottles, interspersed with tomatoes.

1938 P. Wait & D. Wait tr. A. Rossi Rise Ital. Fascism iii. 24 Mussolini addressed his men. ‘Arditi, Comrades...’ The arditi raised their daggers..shouting: ‘Long live Italy’. Thus..a rough-and-ready bodyguard was formed.

1963 T. Morris & P. Morris Pentonville xi. 240 Most serious of all are the premeditated ‘goings over’ of individuals by small groups of men who are the bodyguard of a gang leader.

1995 V. Chandra Red Earth & Pouring Rain (1996) 265 Sanjay made believe he was on his way to London: the procession was his royal train, the cavalry was his elite bodyguard, the covered palanquins carried his queens.

1703 Exam., Tryal, & Condemnation Rebellion Ob—r 6 I desire my Countryman may stand by me, I am afraid of my Life without my Body-Guard.

1751 R. Paltock Life Peter Wilkins II. xiv. 157 Fifty Body-guards, in two Lines.

1823 Q. Rev. Jan. 290 He had seen the mob conducting four of his bodyguards to death, and condescended to ask their lives from the assassins.

1861 W. Sargent André 390 The..execution..of one of the body-guards.

1907 Newport (Rhode Island) Mercury 24 Aug. 6/2 Pinkerton detectives..became watchmen for banks, agents of corporations, bodyguards of rich men who feared assassination and strike breakers.

1957 M. B. Picken Fashion Dict. 227/2 Mousquetaire, having real or fancied resemblance to costume worn by French musketeers, or royal bodyguards, from 1622 to 1815.

1997 D. Quinn My Ishmael (1999) 231 Luk will have two people with him—a bodyguard, who'll be armed to the teeth, and a driver, who'll stay with the car.

1880 Times 15 Nov. 6/3 A herculean fellow standing in the road..warned the tenant that he would get into trouble if he was seen ‘body-guarding a —— landlord’.

1926 Chicago Tribune 4 Mar. 3/1 The Hawthorne hotel.., where it was reported the notorious Al Brown, vice lord, was being quartered, bodyguarded by ten Sicilians imported from New York.

1984 G. Cook Black Company 285 It was not till he had dogged me a while that I realized he was bodyguarding.

2007 Sunday Express (Nexis) 23 Sept. 26 Freelance soldiers may be found..bodyguarding diplomats, journalists..and aidworkers.