laager

American  

[lah-ger] / ˈlɑ gər /

Or lager

noun

1. a camp or encampment, especially within a protective circle of wagons.

---

verb (used with or without object)

1. to arrange or encamp in a laager.

laager British  

/ ˈlɑːɡə /

noun

1. (in Africa) a camp, esp one defended by a circular formation of wagons

2. military a place where armoured vehicles are parked

---

verb

1. to form (wagons) into a laager

2. (tr) to park (armoured vehicles) in a laager

Etymology

Origin of laager

1840–50; < Afrikaans laer, earlier lager; cognate with German Lager camp. See lair ¹

Example Sentences

The painting lies on the floor of her “laager” – a storage barn open to the elements, apart from a metre-high stone wall, which you have to clamber over with the help of a rickety chair.

From The Guardian

Their prevailing image of communal unity was the “laager,” the barricaded circle of pioneer wagons.

From The New Yorker

The ancestors of the white Afrikaners, 19th century Dutch settlers, had their own response to overwhelming danger: circling their wagons in an impenetrable laager.

From Time

Pistorius lives on a golf estate, which exemplifies all the elements of "semigration" to gated communities and the laager mentality after apartheid.

From The Guardian

From Cannon Kopje a commanding view of the whole country on all sides of Mafeking may be obtained, the Boer laagers giving to the expanses of the valley the aspect of a mining camp.

From Project Gutenberg