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.

guerrilla warfare

1. Wars fought with hit-and-run tactics by small groups against an invader or against an established government. ( See counterinsurgency .)

Word History and Origins

Origin of guerrilla warfare¹

First recorded in 1835–45

Example Sentences

Most of Ireland ultimately became an independent state in 1922, after several years of bloody guerrilla warfare.

From Salon

Regarding Venezuela, Goldman himself says that he arrived too late, after Che Guevara had died and after the guerrilla warfare was over.

From Salon

In an analogy not heard before in the 10-year-old case, the major likened Mr. Hadi’s “guerrilla warfare” to tactics used by U.S.-backed Ukrainian forces trying to repel the Russian invasion.

From New York Times

Despite their frustrations at their extended evacuation, residents at the Lebanese border are often loath to criticize Hezbollah, fearing its security apparatus and still grateful that its guerrilla warfare helped to end the Israeli occupation from 1982 to 2000.

From New York Times

During the Vietnam War, the CIA and U.S. military recruited Iu Mien in neighboring Laos, many of them subsistence farmers, to engage in guerrilla warfare and to provide intelligence and surveillance to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh Trail that the North Vietnamese used to send troops and weapons through Laos and Cambodia into South Vietnam.

From Seattle Times