guerrilla warfare

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
1835-45
Examples from the web for guerrilla warfare
  • It is extremely difficult to prevent these sort of guerrilla warfare attacks.
  • There may well be an increase in guerrilla warfare because new technologies may increase our vulnerability to it.
  • It is often unconventional and messy guerrilla warfare.
  • What they did not and still do not agree on is the point at which confrontation becomes guerrilla warfare.
  • No doubt he was hardened by his previous extensive experience of reporting guerrilla warfare in various continents.
  • Sporadic guerrilla warfare soon broke out along with often fraudulently decided and violently disputed elections.
  • guerrilla warfare spread mayhem across the state and engendered hatred that lasted for decades.
Contemporary definitions for guerrilla warfare
noun

a type of military action using small mobile irregular forces to carry out surprise tactics against hostile regular forces

Word Origin

Spanish 'skirmishing' + warfare

guerrilla warfare in Culture
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.)

Encyclopedia Article for guerrilla warfare

type of warfare fought by irregulars in fast-moving, small-scale actions against orthodox military and police forces and, on occasion, against rival insurgent forces, either independently or in conjunction with a larger political-military strategy. The word guerrilla (the diminutive of Spanish guerra, "war") stems from the duke of Wellington's campaigns during the Peninsular War (1808-14), in which Spanish and Portuguese irregulars, or guerrilleros, helped drive the French from the Iberian Peninsula. Over the centuries the practitioners of guerrilla warfare have been called rebels, irregulars, insurgents, partisans, and mercenaries. Frustrated military commanders have consistently damned them as barbarians, savages, terrorists, brigands, outlaws, and bandits.

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