Also lager. [S. African Du. lager = G. lager, Du. leger (see LEAGUER).] A camp, encampment; among the S. African Boers, a temporary lodgement in the open marked out by an encircling line of wagons.
1850. R. G. Cumming, Hunter’s Life S. Afr. (ed. 2), I. 202. Their tents and waggons were drawn up on every side of the farm-house…. The Boers informed me that all their countrymen, and also the Griquas, were thus packed together in ‘lagers,’ or encampments.
1883. Standard, 7 Sept., 5/5. So threatening has the attitude of the Zulus become that Captain Mansell, with the native police force, has been obliged to go into laager at Ekowe for safety.
1891. R. W. Murray, S. Africa, 177. Laager was formed that same evening about five o’clock.
1899. Times, 25 Oct., 5/2. Our men dashed forward to carry the laager with bayonets.
