> as lemmas

1616 T. Dekker Artillery Garden sig. D Front, Reare, & File, (whether it Moues or Stands) Being like an Engine, all of Armed hands.

1641 J. Milton Of Reformation 47 Yet to give them play front, and reare, it shall be my task to prove that Episcopacy..is not only not agreeable, but tending to the destruction of Monarchy.

1692 E. Hickeringill Good Old Cause in Wks. (1716) II. 512 His Army stood in battalia, ready to fight the Enemy that had beset them Front and Rear.

1720 tr. G. Wishart Compl. Hist. Wars Scotl. 27 Lest being encompassed with so great a number, they should fall on him in the Front, Rear and Flank, he caused his Army to be drawn out.

1792 J. Belknap Foresters x. 131 The snake set up such a hiss as brought a dozen more out of their holes, who attacked the proud murderer in front, rear, and flank, and obliged him to take to his heels for safety.

1808 W. Scott Marmion vi. xxxv. 368 Front, flank, and rear, the squadrons sweep.

1891 A. Austin Human Trag. (ed. 4) i. 54 The muffled mist came trailing up the leas, Hemmed in the landscape, front, and flank, and rear.

1933 Fresno (Calif.) Bee Republican 6 Feb. From every state in the Union comes the startling news that our public schools are being assaulted front, flank and rear.

2006 Newsweek (Nexis) 3 Apr. Two squads of heavily armed troops kept watch, front, rear and flanks, rifles at the ready, and wouldn't let the group linger more than a few minutes in any place.