Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

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

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In the East Indies, a native tent-pitcher, camp-follower, or regimental servant.
  • noun An East Indian sailor.
  • noun An artilleryman of an inferior class: a gun-lascar.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun East Indies A native sailor, employed in European vessels; also, a menial employed about arsenals, camps, camps, etc.; a camp follower.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A sailor, army servant or artilleryman from India or Southeast Asia.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a volcano in the Andes in Chile
  • noun an East Indian sailor

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

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

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Examples

Comments

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  • "...as they came into the town, where tight-turbanned Lascars could be seen contemplating the iron-gangs with satisfaction..."

    --Patrick O'Brian, The Nutmeg of Consolation, 355

    March 9, 2008

  • East Indian sailor

    July 28, 2009

  • I wonder if they sail around a big watery oval, forever steering to port.

    July 28, 2009

  • Honestly? That was my first thought.

    July 28, 2009

  • This word was used in a Sherlock Holmes episode "The Man With The Twisted Lip."

    June 15, 2012