laager, verb
/ˈlɑːɡə/
- Forms:
- Also lager.
- Origin:
- From laager noun.
1. transitive. in historical contexts. To form (wagons) into a laager, as a defensive fortification.
1879 Daily News (U.K.) 1 Mar.The waggons were not ‘laagered’ or drawn up so close as to make it difficult to force the camp.
2. transitive and reflexive. To encamp (persons, or oneself and one’s companions) in a strong defensive position in a laager. Usually passive.
1883 Standard (U.K.) 17 May 5Four hundred Boers, laagered in Stilleland, have threatened to attack Mankoroane.
1897 F.R. Statham S. Afr. as It Is 41The Europeans, believing themselves to be attacked by the Griquas, laagered themselves in the town.
3. intransitive. To camp; to set up camp (within a ring of wagons). Also figurative, and in the phrase laager up.
1885 Lady Bellairs Tvl War 93With difficulty the waggons were passed over Sand Spruit, then halting, and laagering for breakfast.
1989 J. Crwys-Williams S. Afr. Despatches 6By midday, all was over: the royal kraal was fired and the troops recrossed the Umfolozi to laager for the night.
4. transitive. rare. To enclose (an encampment) in a laager.
1891 R. Russell Natal 229Had the camp been at once laagered in Dutch fashion on the first indication of the enemy’s presence.
1934 B.I. Buchanan Pioneer Days 112He would inevitably incur disaster if the camp were not laagered (that is, barricaded with parked wagons) wherever and whenever it was pitched.
To form (wagons) into a laager, as a defensive fortification.
To encamp (persons, or oneself and one’s companions) in a strong defensive position in a laager. Usually passive.
To enclose (an encampment) in a laager.
- Derivatives:
- Hence laagered participial adjective, (of wagons) disposed so as to serve as a laager; (of camps or persons) enclosed in a laager or behind a defensive barrier (also figurative); laagering verbal noun, the action of forming a laager.1881 Contemp. Rev. (U.K.) Feb. 222The laagered waggon their sole protection.1949 Cape Times 27 Apr. 10Are we really going to keep ourselves laagered when other countries in Africa get together on economic expansion projects?
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