Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A defensive encampment encircled by armored vehicles or wagons.
- intransitive verb To camp in a defensive encirclement.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To arrange in such a way as to form a defensive inclosure; arrange so as to form a laager: as, to
laager wagons. - To halt and form a laager; encamp in a laager: as, we laagered five miles farther on.
- noun In South Africa, an encampment; an inclosure for temporary defense formed of the wagons of a traveling party.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun South Africa A camp, especially one surrounded by a circular formation of travelers' wagons for temporary defense.
- verb To form into, or camp in, a laager, or protected camp.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
defensive encampment encircled bywagons , especially by South AfricanBoers . - noun military A temporary
formation ofarmoured vehicles for resupply.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a camp defended by a circular formation of wagons
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word laager.
Examples
-
The laager was a twelve-foot-high barbed wire enclosure, eighty feet wide by three hundred long, with the hut occupying the greater part of the central space.
-
Encircling his laager was another chain of "randten" entirely occupied and fortified, and we soon realised what a large and entrenched stretch of ground it was.
My Reminiscences of the Anglo-Boer War P. [Illustrator] Van Breda 1892
-
About a hundred and fifty yards to the left of the laager was a little dell where I had hidden my horse, together with one belonging to the Boers, and my saddle and bridle.
Allan's Wife Henry Rider Haggard 1890
-
The presence of women in our laager was a great hindrance to me in my work.
Three Years' War Christiaan Rudolf De Wet 1888
-
Although there is a growing black elite who can now afford to join the 'laager', a recent survey reveals that only 2% of blacks have a private security or armed response system - in contrast to 45% of whites - demonstrating that the preoccupation with criminal violence and victimization plays out in racially, as well as economically, defined ways.
ANC Today 2004
-
The NNP claims that the choice is between its co-operative governance with the ANC or retreating with the DA into a "laager" of minorities.
-
A Volkstaat would be a "laager" from which Afrikaner culture and identity could contribute to South African society.
-
The white minority will be even more of a minority, trapped in their "laager".
-
But the English had fortified their position in the night with ditches, palisades, and a 'laager' of wagons.
The Red True Story Book Andrew Lang 1900
-
North of the river, some cannon were placed in advanced works, three-quarters of a mile from the rifle pits, between which and the river, in the open, was the "laager" of ammunition and other wagons.
knitandpurl commented on the word laager
"Bud had paid a few visits to the local laager, studied some of their training ractives on his home mediatron, put in some extra hours at the gym trying to meet their physical standards, even gone to a couple of horrific bible-study sessions."
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson, p 30 of the Spectra trade paperback
May 17, 2016