bush-ranger
(ˈbʊʃˌreɪndʒə(r))
[f. bush1 9 + ranger.]
An escaped convict who took refuge in the Australian ‘bush’; a criminal living in the bush, and subsisting by robbery with violence.
| 1817 Sydney Gazette 25 Jan., Robberies by the banditti of bush-rangers on Van Dieman's Land. 1826 Gentl. Mag. July XCVI. ii. 69/2 Van Diemen's Land papers and private letters are full of details of atrocities by the bush-rangers (escaped convicts). 1852 West Tasmania II. 130 The bushrangers at first were absentees [convicts] who were soon allured or driven to theft and violence; so early as 1808 by systematic robbery they had excited feelings of alarm. 1869 Parkman Discov. Gt. West xxvii. (1875) 389 His little garrison of bush-rangers greeted them with a salute of musketry. |