‖ commanˈdeer, v. S. Africa.
Also -der.
[ad. S. African Du. kommanˈderen, f. F. commander to command.]
a. trans. To command or force into military service; to seize for (or as for) military use.
| 1881 Times 1 Feb. 5/5 The night previously the Boers had commandeered the natives..and compelled them to fight. 1882 Standard 12 Dec. 5/7 The Schoonspruit..Burghers, who have been commandeered, have declined to go to the front. 1883 All Y. Round 17 Nov. 533 Any quantity of grapes might be commandeered without..asking. |
b. absol.
| 1881 Times 25 Jan. 5 The Boers are in Lydenburg commandering from the stores. 1882 Standard 12 Dec. 5/7 The action of the Government in commandeering so extensively. |
c. fig. and gen. To take arbitrary possession of.
| 1900 Kipling in J. Ralph War's Brighter Side (1901) ix. 135 We never use such words as steal, or ‘collar’, ‘pinch’, or ‘shake’: The fashion is to say he ‘commandeers’ it. 1900 Conan Doyle Great Boer War 208 The naïve claims put forward by the Boers to some special Providence—a process which a friendly German critic described as ‘commandeering the Almighty’. 1902 Westm. Gaz. 3 Apr. 3/1 The sleeve commandeers to itself a share of attention..out of proportion to its place. 1928 Punch 6 June 620 The porter..came to the hotel long after the Merry Party had commandeered it for week-ends. 1929 Daily Express 12 Dec. 1/3, I commandeered passing lorries and any other vehicles which happened to be going down the road. 1954 M. Beresford Lost Villages ix. 335 The sheriff commandeering wheat from the fields of Compton Verney in 1445. |
Hence commanˈdeered ppl. a., taken for military service or use; commanˈdeering vbl. n.
| 1894 Westm. Gaz. 23 June 6/1 A number of commandeered settlers. 1894 Athenæum 28 July 125/2 The commandeering of British subjects in the Transvaal. 1899 Daily News 13 June 4/2 Each commandeered burgher. |