▪ I. leaguer, n.1
(ˈliːgə(r))
Also 6 legher, legar, 6–7 leagure, 7 leguer, leager, leagre, 8 leiger.
[a. Du. leger camp, formally equivalent to OE. leᵹer lair n.1]
1. A military camp, esp. one engaged in a siege; an investing force.
| 1577 Holinshed Chron. I. 212/2 But when it was perceiued that theyr slender ranckes were not able to resiste the thycke leghers of the enimies. 1590 Sir J. Smyth Disc. Weapons 2 They [military men] will not vouchsafe..to use our antient termes belonging to matters of warre, but doo call a Campe by the Dutch name of Legar. a 1645 Featly in Fuller's Abel Rediv., Reynolds (1867) II. 240 The leaguer is not yet broken up. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. vii. §204 It would not at first be credited at the leaguer that the earl of Essex could be in a condition to attempt such a work. 1650 T. B[ayley] Worcester's Apoph. 100 When General Fairfax came into the Leaguer before Raglan. 1724 De Foe Mem. Cavalier (1840) 120, I came into the imperial leaguer at the siege of Leipsic. 1823 Scott Quentin D. i, He temporised until the enemy had broken up their leaguer. 1827 Keble Chr. Y. 2nd Sunday after Trinity, The holy house is still beset With leaguer of stern foes. 1865 Parkman Huguenots ii. (1875) 20 Villegagnon with six followers..passed under cover of night through the infidel leaguer. 1875 Stubbs Const. Hist. II. xiv. 17 He had dispersed the leaguer at Lincoln. |
b. in leaguer: in camp; engaged in a siege.
| 1590 Marlowe 2nd Pt. Tamburl. i. iii, Our men of Barbary haue..laine in leagre fifteene moneths and more. 1600 Holland Livy 446 Anniball now laie in leaguer, before the walls of Gerion. 1675 tr. Machiavelli's Prince xii. (1883) 85 They were in leaguer before a town. 1808 Scott Marm. vi. i, Where England's King in leaguer lay. 1879 Butcher & Lang Odyss. 39 Now we sat in leaguer there achieving many adventures. |
2. A military investment, siege.
| 1598 B. Jonson Ev. Man in Hum. iii. i, It was the first, but the best leagure, that euer I beheld, with these eies. 1630 J. Taylor (Water P.) Begger Wks. i. 100/1 Two dangerous hurts hardly brought off from Bummill Leaguer. 1669 Sturmy Mariner's Mag. v. 72 At the time of a Leagure he must expect often to change his Powder. 1715 tr. Pancirollus' Rerum Mem. I. ii. vi. 81 The Waste which lay between the Houses in a Time of a Leaguer, was sown with Corn. 1855 Motley Dutch Rep. iii. ix. (1866) 533 During the infinite horrors of the Harlem siege, and in the more prosperous leaguer of Alkmaar. 1859 Smiles Self-Help vii. (1860) 175 The leaguer of Lucknow. 1890 Athenæum 13 Dec. 811/1 The long leaguer of Miletus in the Ionic revolt. |
3. attrib. and Comb., as leaguer-proof adj.; † leaguer-basket, a fascine; leaguer-† lady, -lass, † -laundress, euphemistic names for a woman attached to a camp.
| 1659 Hoole Comenius (1672) 291 Engineres who lye behind *Leagure-baskets [L. gerras]. |
| 1702 Steele Funeral ii. 36, I shall take care..to keep you from Lord Hardy—From being a *Leiger Lady, From carrying a Knapsack. |
| 1822 Scott Nigel xviii. (motto), This were a *leaguer-lass to love a soldier, To bind his wounds, and kiss his bloody brow. 1895 Q. Rev. Apr. 472 Her father had dreamed that Jeanne ‘went with the soldiers’, doubtless as a ‘leaguer-lass’. |
| 1629 Massinger Picture i. i, Were it not for my honesty, I could wish now I were his *leager landresse. |
| c 1645 Howell Lett. II. iv, There are some beauties so strong, that they are *leager-proof; they are so barricaded that no battery..can do good upon them. |
¶ 4. This word has occasionally been substituted by confusion for leager, ledger, in attributive use and in the phrase to lie leaguer.
| 1678 H. Vaughan Thalia Rediv. Wks. (Grosart) I. 303 Angels descend, and rule the sphere; Where Heaven lies leiguer. 1727 Boyer Fr. Dict. II. s.v., A Leaguer Ambassador, (one that makes a continuance) Un Ambassadeur ordinaire. 1826 Scott Woodst. II. x. 260 He lies leaguer, as a sort of ambassador for his worthy masters. |
▪ II. leaguer, n.2
(ˈliːgə(r))
[f. league n.2 + -er1.]
1. a. A member of a league; in reference to Fr. Hist., a member or adherent of the League formed against the Huguenots in the reign of Henry III; in modern times, a member of the Anti-Corn-Law League, the Irish Land League, etc.
| 1591 Colynet (title) True History of the Ciuill Warres of France, between the French King Henry 4. and the Leaguers. 1683 Apol. Prot. France iii. 8 The Liguers..did well to cry, To your Quarters White Scarfs, this is none of your quarrel. 1724 De Foe Mem. Cavalier (1840) 168 Here was no leaguers in the field, as in the story of Nuremberg. 1729 Tindal Rapin's Hist. Eng. IX. xvii. 103 note, After the Death of the Duke of Guise Henry III was accused by the Leaguers of having caused the Queen of Scots to be put to Death. 1844 Cobden Speech 11 Dec., Speeches 1870 I. 229 One Leaguer in Manchester who has given more money..than [etc.]. 1864 Sala in Daily Tel. 23 Aug., This last dirty move of the Loyal Leaguers to spite the Copperheads in view of the Chicago Convention. 1880 [see landleaguer]. 1892 ‘H. le Caron’ 25 Y. Secr. Service (1893) 181 O'Rorke and Andrew Kettle, both Leaguers. 1943 M. Ward G. K. Chesterton (1944) xxvi. 435 Many leaguers..felt..that the spirit of criticism of others was too fully developed. 1949 M. L. Darling At Freedom's Door i. ii. 52 In this year's election he stood as a Unionist, and like most Unionists was defeated by a Leaguer. 1970 Cape Times 28 Oct. 26/2 There are few American major leaguers earning less than $30,000 a year. |
b. attrib., as leaguer-town.
| 1591 Art. conc. Admiralty 21 July §51 All those, that..haue had trafficke with the Leaguers in France, or shipped..any victuals..for Spaine, the Islands, or any leaguer towne in Fraunce. 1647 May Hist. Parl. ii. v. 93 Sir John Meldrum arrived suddenly at a Leaguer-town called Aulby. |
† 2. ? A term of reproach. ? nonce-use.
| 1615 Chapman Odyss. xvii. 285 This same victles Leager, This bane of banquets; this most nasty begger. |
▪ III. leaguer, n.3 ?Obs.
(ˈliːgə(r))
Also 8 leagre, 8–9 leager, 9 legar.
[? ad. Du. ligger a tun, f. liggen to lie v.1 Cf. G. leger (also legger, wasserlegger) a measure for arrack, pl. fresh-water casks on board ship.]
a. A certain measure of arrack. b. A cask of wine or oil, ? of a particular size. c. Naut. (See quot. 1867.)
| 1683 in Hacke's Collect. Voy. (1699) I. 37 We had gotten in 36 Liggers of Water already. 1712 W. Rogers Voy. 398 Half a Leaguer of Spelman's Neep, or the best sort of Arrack. 1730 Capt. W. Wriglesworth MS. Log-bk. of the Lyell 15 Aug., Started 3 Leagers of Arrack belonging to the Ships Crew, into 3 Butts and a small Cask. 1772–84 Cook Voy. (1790) I. 362 The provisions for which the French contracted this year..one thousand two hundred leagers of wine. 1789 G. Keate Pelew Isl. 83 They also discovered a cask of Arrack..it was half a Leaguer. 1800 Naval Chron. III. 66 The largest casks are called leagers, and are of the following dimensions: Length..4 ft. 6 in., Diameter of Bouge..3 ft., Diameter of Chine..2 ft. 5 in. 1802 Ibid. VIII. 82 His object was to purchase 200 legars, to be filled with water..for the use of the cattle. 1812 J. Smyth Pract. of Customs (1821) 169, Butts and Leaguers. 1837 Whittock Bk. Trades (1842) 348 [Oilmen] Both parties require roomy outskirt premises for their stores; the former for his casks and his ‘leagers’. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Leaguers, the longest water-casks, stowed near the kelson, of 159 English imperial gallons each. Before the invention of water-tanks, leaguers composed the whole ground tier of casks in men-of-war. 1881 F. R. Statham Blacks, Boers, & British iv. 61 You want to see what can be done with South African wine?.. Visit a great airy shed not far from the Cape Town docks,..the rough and ready wine has become—what? Look at it and see it as it is drawn from the huge casks—leaguers they call them here. 1959 Cape Times 14 Mar. 2/6 Two lorries, one carrying a 5-leaguer tank of wine (some 800 gallons) collided here yesterday. 1970 Ibid. 28 Oct. 20/3 (Advt.), A wine quota of 320 leaguers. |
▪ IV. ˈleaguer, v.
[f. leaguer n.1]
† 1. refl. and intr. To set one's leaguer, to encamp. Obs.
| 1629 S'hertogenbosh 15 Leaguering himself on the East side of the Towne. 1676 W. Row Contn. Blair's Autobiog. x. (1848) 161 Where the army had leaguered the year preceding. |
† b. To ‘lie’, lodge. Obs. rare.
| 1596 Nashe Saffron Walden 157 When I legerd by him in the Dolphin. |
2. trans. To besiege, beleaguer. Chiefly in ˈleaguered, ˈleaguering ppl. adjs.
| 1715–20 Pope Iliad xviii. 593 Two mighty hosts a leaguer'd town embrace. 1794 Coleridge Robespierre ii. i, That the voice of truth..though leagured round By envy and her hateful brood of hell, Be heard. 1816 Byron Siege Cor. ii, The crescent shines Along the Moslem's leaguering lines. 1855 W. Sargent Braddock's Exped. 362 His..defence of Detroit against Pontiac and his leaguering hordes. 1860 T. Martin Horace 19 The watchfires round Troy's leaguer'd wall. |