The Collaborative International Dictionary
Voltigeur \Vol`ti*geur\, n. [F., fr. voltiger to vault, It. volteggiare. See Volt a tread.]
A tumbler; a leaper or vaulter.
(Mil.) One of a picked company of irregular riflemen in each regiment of the French infantry.
Wiktionary
n. 1 A tumbler; a leaper or vaulter. 2 (context military English) One of a picked company of irregular rifleman in each regiment of the French infantry.
Wikipedia
The Voltigeurs were French military skirmish units created in 1804 by Emperor Napoleon I.
Voltigeur (1847–1874) was a British Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a career that lasted from 1849 to August 1852 he ran ten times and won five races. In 1850 he won the Epsom Derby and the St Leger against his fellow three-year-olds and then recorded his most famous victory when beating The Flying Dutchman in the Doncaster Cup. In May 1851 Voltigeur was beaten by The Flying Dutchman in what was probably the most celebrated match race in the history of British thoroughbred racing. Voltigeur was never as good again, winning once from his remaining five races, but went on to have a successful stud career.
Usage examples of "voltigeur".
The second men of the allied skirmishing pairs fired, but the voltigeurs were too numerous and their musket fire was almost continuous and the red, green and brown jackets were falling back.
Ahead of the column the sound of the skirmishing grew in intensity as the voltigeurs closed the range and opened on the riflemen with their muskets.
The skirmishers would go first, the thin line of Riflemen and redcoats wading the Alberche to drive off the sentries and lock up the French Voltigeurs so that they could not blunt the attack of the massed British Battalions which would follow on to the French flank.
The musketry was not the huge eruptions of platoon fire, but rather the smaller sporadic snapping of skirmishers which betrayed that the French Voltigeurs were closing on the Dutch light troops, but both sets of skirmishers were well hidden from the Prince and his staff by the tall crops.
The four remaining Voltigeurs pulled their triggers, wanting only to retreat to the safety of the fortresses.
The job of the British skirmishers was to hold the French Voltigeurs away from the vulnerable gun crews.
The Voltigeurs were wading through the half-crushed crops like men struggling through waist-deep water.
French officer shouted at his men and the Voltigeurs sprinted forward to shorten the range and overwhelm the Riflemen with the threat of their bayonets.
French Voltigeurs far outnumbered their opponents and slowly, bitterly, the redcoats and Riflemen retreated.
Frenchmen, a swarm of Voltigeurs running forward in loose order and Sharpe knew that added to the ordeal of cannon-fire the battalions must now endure an onslaught of musketry.
The surviving British cannons hammered canister at the Voltigeurs, but their scattered formation saved the French from heavy casualties.
Cavalry could scour the Voltigeurs away, but the Duke had lost his heavy cavalry and was keeping his best remaining horsemen, the Germans and British light cavalry, to cover his retreat if disaster struck.
They might have deployed out of square, but the Emperor made sure his cavalry was always threatening and so the Irish were forced to stay in their vulnerable square like a great fat target for the gunners and the Voltigeurs who infeated the eastern half of the valley as thickly as they swarmed in the west.
Some of those Voltigeurs, fearful that a French victory and pursuit might take them away from the rich plunder of the battlefield, took care to enrich themselves before the British line shattered.
The dead and injured of the British heavy cavalry littered the valley floor and, though the pockets of many of the casualties had been hastily searched already, the Voltigeurs had the luxury of time in which they could slit the uniform seams or tear out the greasy -helmet liners where men liked to hide their precious gold coins.