Resembling or characteristic of a guard; watchful, alert, and protective in manner or appearance.
From guard plus the suffix -like (Old English 'lich' meaning resembling or similar), a productive English suffix creating adjectives meaning 'resembling' or 'having the quality of.'
The -like suffix is incredibly flexible and beloved by English speakers—we use it constantly to create comparisons ('dog-like,' 'ghost-like'), and it's especially common in fiction writers describing the watchful posture of characters.
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