praetorian

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.

Bashir had empowered Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti, to run the RSF as a praetorian guard to protect him against possible challenges from within the army.

From BBC • Mar. 4, 2026

Dictators obviously maintain unilateral control of their militaries, employed as they invariably are as praetorian protectors and coercive extensions of their autocratic overlords.

From Salon • Dec. 24, 2023

“It’s an army within an army, the regime’s praetorian guard,” he said.

From New York Times • Feb. 3, 2023

Key aspects of the effort to achieve legitimacy were thus more praetorian or Bonapartist than fascist.

From Slate • Feb. 9, 2017

The praetorian guard, dissolved by Vitellius, was reconstituted out of Italian cohorts following the precedent set by Augustus.

From A History of Rome to 565 A. D. by Boak, Arthur Edward Romilly