laager
Americannoun
verb (used with or without object)
noun
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(in Africa) a camp, esp one defended by a circular formation of wagons
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military a place where armoured vehicles are parked
verb
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to form (wagons) into a laager
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(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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The security estate--a walled-off cluster of houses protected by razor wire, electric fences, motion detectors and guards--is the 21st century laager.
From Time • Feb. 28, 2013
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 • Feb. 28, 2013
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 • Feb. 22, 2013
De Klerk and Mandela are hoping that all white South Africans have finally, permanently come out of the laager and into the world.
From Time Magazine Archive
The big main doors of the post-office were thrown open at an early hour of morning but the inmates of laager did not rise with the lark.
From The Claw by Stockley, Cynthia
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.
