guerrilla warfare

See synonyms for guerrilla warfare on Thesaurus.com
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.

Origin of guerrilla warfare

1
First recorded in 1835–45

Words Nearby guerrilla warfare

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use guerrilla warfare in a sentence

  • Thus Hindman confesses he was encouraging the bloody guerrilla warfare which raged throughout the State.

  • In the art of guerrilla warfare the Indians have always shown exceptional skill.

  • Checked by this defeat, he again drew back into the forests, resuming his guerrilla warfare against the plantations.

    Black Rebellion | Thomas Wentworth Higginson
  • Suppressed in one place, they appeared in another, waging a guerrilla warfare like that against Napoleon.

  • By dint of guerrilla warfare, presents, and coaxing, by the middle of 1771 the rebels were pacified and settled in towns.

    The Colonization of North America | Herbert Eugene Bolton

Cultural definitions for guerrilla warfare

guerrilla warfare

[ (guh-ril-uh) ]


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

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.