guerrilla warfare

American  

noun

1. the use of hit-and-run tactics by small, mobile groups of irregular forces operating in territory controlled by a hostile, regular force.

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guerrilla warfare Cultural  

1. Wars fought with hit-and-run tactics by small groups against an invader or against an established government. (See counterinsurgency.)

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Etymology

Origin of guerrilla warfare

First recorded in 1835–45

Example Sentences

Navy’s siege is revealing a hole in Tehran’s strategy of guerrilla warfare and controlling the Strait of Hormuz.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 2, 2026

Another farmer, David Lemon, said hare coursing has become like "guerrilla warfare" in his area on the Wiltshire-Hampshire border.

From BBC • Mar. 17, 2025

India’s independence movement was closely aligned with Ireland's, for example, and explicitly modeled on the combination of civil disobedience and guerrilla warfare that won Irish independence in the 1920s.

From Salon • Mar. 16, 2025

The floating fetus, we’re told, communicates with mother and brother not in the typical ooh, the baby’s kicking fashion, but rather, in full-blown telepathic sentences about interplanetary strategy and guerrilla warfare.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 21, 2024

Though de Wet had said he believed that guerrilla warfare had not yet begun, we were taking no chances.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela