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The Collaborative International Dictionary
laager

laager \laa"ger\ (l[add]"g[~e]r or l[aum]"g[~e]r), n. [D., also leger. Cf. 2d Leaguer, Lair.] A camp, especially one surrounded by a circular formation of travelers' wagons for temporary defense. [South Africa]

Syn: lager.

Wagons . . . can be readily formed into a laager, a camp, by being drawn into a circle, with the oxen placed inside and so kept safe from the attacks of wild beasts.
--James Bryce.

Wiktionary
laager

n. 1 A defensive encampment encircled by wagons, especially by South African Boers. 2 (context military English) A temporary formation of armoured vehicles for resupply. vb. 1 (cx transitive English) To arrange in a circular formation for defence. 2 (cx intransitive English) To camp in a circular formation.

WordNet
laager

n. a camp defended by a circular formation of wagons [syn: lager]

Usage examples of "laager".

The prisoners, in a downcast column, weary, spent, and unkempt, filed off to the Boer laager at Waschbank, there to take train for Pretoria.

Moving out suddenly and rapidly from Belmont, it struck at the extreme right of the Boer line, which consisted of a laager occupied by the colonial rebels of that part of the country.

It had become known that women and children were in the laager, and a message was sent offering them a place of safety, but even to this a refusal was given.

Meantime hardly a night passed that some of the Boers did not escape from their laager and give themselves up to our pickets.

Boers leave their trenches, Captain Boileau, of the Sappers, crawled forward along the bank of the river, and discovered Captain Stairs and ten men of the Canadians, the survivors of the firing line, firmly ensconced in a crevice of the river bank overlooking the laager, quite happy on being reassured as to the proximity of support.

A visit to the laager showed that the horrible smells which had been carried across to the British lines, and the swollen carcasses which had swirled down the muddy river were true portents of its condition.

From the 19th to the 27th was incessant fighting with Cronje inside the laager and with De Wet outside.

At the end of seventeen days of mud and blood the brave irregulars saw an empty laager and abandoned trenches.

The Boer laager was approached and attacked in the early morning by a force of one hundred and twenty frontiersmen, and so effective was their fire that the Boers estimated their numbers at several thousand.

The credit is largely due to Major Lean for his prompt initiative on discovering their laager, and to Major Taylor for his handling of the force during a very critical time.

On the day before the fight he successfully outwitted the Boers, for, learning that they had left their laager in order to take up a position for battle, he pounced upon the laager and captured 10,000 head of cattle, forty-three wagons, and forty prisoners.

On June 6th the British had a little luck at last, for on that date Scobell and Lukin in the Barkly East district surprised a laager and took twenty prisoners, 166 horses, and much of the Jamestown loot.

Leaving the infantry as a camp guard, Benson operated with mounted troops alone, and no Boer laager within fifty miles was safe from his nocturnal visits.

In each case the rule was simply to gallop headlong into the Boer laager, and to go on chasing as far as the horses could go.

Upon December 3rd Bruce Hamilton, who had the valuable assistance of Wools-Sampson to direct his intelligence, struck swiftly out from Ermelo and fell upon a Boer laager in the early morning, capturing ninety-six prisoners.