Definition of "praetorian"

Hey, sir? Sir, excuse me?” The blonde was calling out to him, in imperious tones that insisted on a reply. Her satraps became watchful, like a Praetorian guard.

2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, page 4

I am so rich, I could have given bid for bid with the wealthiest Prætorians at the auction of the Roman empire (which was the world’s); and yet I owe for the flesh in the tongue I brag with.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 108, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley

Durry's work is still cited as the definitive study of the praetorians, and in fact most modern scholarship on the praetorians is based on material from his work.

2013, Sandra Bingham, The Praetorian Guard, I.B.Tauris, page 6

The Trump praetorians who initially denied there was any effort to pressure the Ukrainians into action on a Biden probe, possibly including the withholding of congressionally approved military aid, suddenly surfaced a new talking point: “They’re trying to turn what was a Biden scandal into a Trump scandal.”

2019 September 23, Jonah Goldberg, “Column: The most noxious part of Ukraine-Biden whistleblower affair is Team Trump thinks we’re all idiots”, in Los Angeles Times