middle guard

First sense first attested in 1871.[1]

middle guard (plural middle guards)

1. (American football) A defensive player positioned in the middle of the pitch, opposite the offensive center and between the defensive tackles; the nose guard.
   • 1956, Jack C. Mitchell, Bernard A. Taylor, Umbrella Defenses, W. C. Brown Company, page 17:

     It allows the middle guard of the defense to roam, and with the combined efforts of his teammates he will emerge your leading tackler game in and out.

   • 2022 April 25, George Bozeka, editor, The 1951 Los Angeles Rams: Profiles of the NFL's First West Coast Champions, McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 285:

     The middle guard faced off consistently against the offensive center, with one or occasionally both hands in the dirt. On running plays, he bore the traditional run-stuffing responsibilities.

2. (cricket, rare) The guard.[1]
3. (rare, of a person) One between the new guard and the old guard.
   • 2022 January 23, Lesley M. M. Blume, “The L.A. Power Lunch is Alive and Well”, in Town & Country‎:

     Hollywood's oldest restaurant and the darling of the old guard (Jack Nicholson has his namesake booth), the middle guard (Quentin Tarantino used it as a location in Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood), and the new guard (it has become a destination for Netflix execs and producers).

• (American football): nose guard
• (American football): nose tackle

• “middle guard”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “middle guard”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.