beacon, verb transitive

Origin:
South African DutchShow more Calque formed on South African Dutch afbaken delimit, demarcate.
Usually in the phrase to beacon off.
To survey (land) and mark (the boundaries of a property). See also beacon noun sense 1.
1872 J.L. Babe S. Afr. Diamond Fields 34A great many diamonds had been picked up there; so we beaconed off a claim and returned to camp.
1883 Pall Mall Gaz. (U.K.) 16 Nov. 2The boundary has never been beaconed off.
1904 H.A. Bryden Hist. of S. Afr. 108The Boers, as they spread northwards beyond the Vaal River,..beaconed out for themselves farms, built houses [etc.].
c1936 S. & E. Afr. Yr Bk & Guide 26A prospective tax on excess land beaconed off, a deterrent which seems to have been fairly effective, although many farms were reduced on survey.
1937 C.R. Prance Tante Rebella’s Saga 41A Commission to beacon-off their land roughly into farms for some of the burghers who were trekking away in swarms.
1962 A.P. Cartwright Gold Miners 61The regulation under which a mijnpacht-brief was registered gave the owner of the land, or the purchaser of his mining rights, the right to beacon an area equal to about one-tenth of the total area of the farm on which he could conduct mining operations himself.
To survey (land) and mark (the boundaries of a property).
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beacon, nounn.beast, nounn.
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