lascar

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las·car

(lăs′kər)

An East Indian sailor, army servant, or artillery trooper during the era of European colonialism in Asia.

[Ultimately (probably via Portuguese lascar) from Urdu laškar, army, from Persian, from Middle Persian; see k^wer- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

lascar

(ˈlæskə)

(Nautical Terms) a sailor from the East Indies

[C17: from Urdu lashkar soldier, from Persian: the army]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

las•car

(ˈlæs kər)

n.

(esp. in colonial E Asia and the Malay Archipelago) a non-European seaman or artilleryman, esp. a Malay.

[1615–25; < Portuguese, akin to lasquarin East Indian soldier < Urdu lashkarī < Persian]

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Noun	1.	lascar - an East Indian sailor crewman, sailor - any member of a ship's crew
	2.	Lascar - a volcano in the Andes in Chile Chile, Republic of Chile - a republic in southern South America on the western slopes of the Andes on the south Pacific coast

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Then we laid out our bedding in the bows, among the sleeping Lascars, to catch any breeze that the pace of the ship might give us.

For four days he had struggled, yelled, and wrenched at the heavy iron bars of his prison without ceasing, and had nearly slain a Lascar incautious enough to come within reach of the great hairy paw.

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Regent street is not unknown to Lascars and Malays; and at Bombay, in the Apollo Green, live Yankees have often scared the natives.

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The result of her effort was the knowledge that on the second day they were to sail for the Pamarung Islands upon a small schooner which her father had purchased, with a crew of Malays and lascars, and von Horn, who had served in the American navy, in command.

Virginia took a keen delight in watching the Malays and lascars at their work, telling von Horn that she had to draw upon her imagination but little to picture herself a captive upon a pirate ship--the half naked men, the gaudy headdress, the earrings, and the fierce countenances of many of the crew furnishing only too realistically the necessary savage setting.

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A motley crowd saunters along the streets -- Lascars off a P.

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He had her manned by the cheekiest gang of lascars I ever did see, whom he allowed to bawl at you inso lently, and, once fast, he plucked you out of your berth as if he did not care what he smashed.

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Had I been recognised in that den my life would not have been worth an hour's purchase; for I have used it before now for my own purposes, and the rascally Lascar who runs it has sworn to have vengeance upon me.

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There a Lascar came alongside in a canoe, sold him the handle of a sword in silver that bore the print of characters engraved on the hilt.

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I declare he is that strange acquisition my late neighbour made, in his journey to Liverpool - a little Lascar, or an American or Spanish castaway."