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household troops

American  

plural noun

  1. troops guarding or attending a sovereign or a sovereign's residence.


household troops British  

plural noun

  1. the infantry and cavalry regiments that carry out escort and guard duties for a head of state

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of household troops

First recorded in 1705–15

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

In a recent book called Twentieth Century Socialism, the "household troops" made some startling admissions.

From Time Magazine Archive

The "auxiliaries" have frequently consisted of soldiers selected from the household troops.

From A Book of the Play Studies and Illustrations of Histrionic Story, Life, and Character by Cook, Dutton

And no soldiers did better service than the household troops of George Fox.

From Sketches of Reforms and Reformers, of Great Britain and Ireland by Stanton, Henry B.

Buno took with him ten thousand of the picked fighting men of the household troops, and these wore all their savage finery.

From Adventures in Swaziland The Story of a South African Boer by O'Neil, Owen Rowe

Lifeguards, the British royal household troops, consisting of cavalry and infantry regiments.

From The Nuttall Encyclopædia Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge by Nuttall, P. Austin

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