Definition of "praetorian" [præ•to•ri•an]

• Of or relating to a praetor or the praetorship. (adjective)
• Of or belonging to the Praetorian Guard. (adjective)
• Venal; corruptible: "A large praetorian bureaucracy, filled with ambitious, possessive . . . and often sycophantic people, makes work and makes trouble” ( Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.) (adjective)
• A praetor or ex-praetor. (noun)
• A member of the Praetorian Guard. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The Japanese, on the contrary, were enrolled as a kind of praetorian guard, or janissaries; in this character, however, their pride and power became so formidable that the king grew uneasy and disbanded them."
• "Since when do candidates for the Senate walk around with their own praetorian guard that puts members of the press corp in handcuffs?"
• "In an odd way, the halfhearted, demoralizing, aborted operations in Vilnius and elsewhere may have inoculated the system against successful praetorian intervention."