bivouac
Americannoun
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a military encampment made with tents or improvised shelters, usually without shelter or protection from enemy fire.
-
the place used for such an encampment.
verb (used without object)
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bivouacsimple
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bivouacssimple
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have bivouackedperfect
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has bivouackedperfect
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am bivouackingprogressive
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are bivouackingprogressive
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is bivouackingprogressive
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have been bivouackingperfect progressive
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has been bivouackingperfect progressive
Past
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bivouackedsimple
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had bivouackedperfect
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was bivouackingprogressive
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were bivouackingprogressive
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had been bivouackingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bivouac
1700–10; < French < Swiss German bīwacht auxiliary patrol, equivalent to bī- by- + wacht patrol, watch
Explanation
If you ever draped a blanket over bushes or lawn chairs in the backyard and pretended to bunk down under it when you were a kid, you’ve made a bivouac — a temporary, makeshift camp with little or no cover. Bivouac comes from the 18th-century German word biwacht, and originally meant a patrol of ordinary citizens who helped the town’s night watchmen. Nowadays, you’ll most often see it used as a noun, but it can be a verb too — and it's often associated with soldiers, though that’s not essential. If you tend to sleepwalk, you might not want to bivouac at the edge of that cliff; make your bivouac in the meadow instead.
Vocabulary lists containing bivouac
Code Talker
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Into Thin Air
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Tolkien Reading Day, List 6
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Earlier on Wednesday, the team issued an update saying the men's backpacks and equipment were found during a search of a bivouac hut they are believed to have sheltered at.
From BBC ● Jan. 8, 2025
Kovacs said lifting Dickey will likely take several days, and that several bivouac points are being prepared along the way so that he and rescue teams can rest.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 7, 2023
The bivouac fell into a ravine, but no one happened to be in the building at the time.
From Scientific American ● Apr. 3, 2023
After getting orders to establish a bivouac site near Airfield 1, Willhite said he then knew the command had come down to settle in for the long haul.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 8, 2020
I carried no rope, no tent or bivouac gear, no hardware save my ice axes.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
Like modern-day companies that merge and re-emerge or fold, some of these schools went under quickly, or moved their bivouacs, or combined forces.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2026
A rational leader would call off the attack, send the troops back to their bivouacs, and send envoys to the negotiating tables, where many other games can be played.
From Slate ● Jan. 14, 2022
After stopping to rest at the final of five bivouacs established at intervals along the way, Mr. Westhauser was lifted to safety through the final, narrow shaft to the surface of the mountain.
From New York Times ● Jun. 19, 2014
He celebrates the joys of doing nothing, but skates, canoes, climbs the 6,000ft peaks behind his cabin, bivouacs on a cliff-ledge and walks 81 miles over three days pulling a sledge.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 1, 2013
In English, that meant: To all units: Japanese are booby-trapping personnel equipment, installations, and bivouacs.
From "Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two" by Joseph Bruchac
Kamil Szymanski, the CEO of G2A Arena where scores of G.I.s have bivouacked, said his company is happy to do its part in difficult times and will “work tirelessly to support the 82nd Airborne Division.”
From Washington Times ● Mar. 3, 2022
Regime forces were bivouacked on the outskirts, and locals were afraid to talk.
From The New Yorker ● Dec. 3, 2018
Kansas volunteers bivouacked in the East Room to protect Abraham Lincoln, and the president tested rifles on the grounds around the house.
From Time ● Aug. 2, 2017
Along with the rest of the cast and crew, Rapace’s family bivouacked in tents, in the middle of nowhere, then traveled to Stockholm for several days of shooting in a studio.
From New York Times ● May 27, 2012
The Romans bivouacked next to the strawberry fields, where they insisted on building their standard field camp.
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
I knew the signs of a bivouacking militia and something less sinister.
From Slate ● Feb. 10, 2017
We'd be entirely self-supported, schlepping all our own gear and bivouacking in the saddles between the peaks.
From National Geographic ● Aug. 10, 2015
Somehow they managed to keep moving until after dark, finally bivouacking on a thin ledge.
From National Geographic ● Jul. 14, 2015
On indie screens, Restrepo, the Sebastian Junger doc about bivouacking with an Army troop in Afghanistan, earned $30,453 on two screens, giving it the highest per-screen average of any new movie.
From Time ● Jun. 27, 2010
If the military situation permits, all troops are put into quarters, only the outpost troops bivouacking.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 2 "Camorra" to "Cape Colony" by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
