Also 8–9 jager, iager, and anglicized YAGER, q.v. [G. jäger hunter, f. jagen to hunt, chase. Cf. CHASSEUR.]
1. A (German or Swiss) huntsman or hunter.
1809. [see YAGER].
1823. W. Irving, in Life & Lett. (1864), II. 139. The king has his forest masters; his chasseurs, piqueurs, jägers, &c.
1859. H. Kingsley, G. Hamlyn, iv. (1894), 16. I … ran at full speed up to the jager, and offered him five shillings if he would come down and shoot the bird.
1880. ‘Ouida,’ Moths, II. 337. A jäger brought to the hotel a grand golden eagle.
2. A rifleman or sharpshooter in a corps of German soldiers, or one forming part of a German or Austrian army. Orig. applied to the members of various bodies of light infantry, recruited mainly from foresters and armed with a huntsman’s equipment, but the jägers now form certain special battalions (for the most part organized as riflemen) in the German and Austrian armies.
1776. in F. Moore, Songs & Ball. Amer. Rev. (1856), 125, note. [The British Government] has … succeeded in raising a legion of Jagers.
1783. Sir H. Clinton, Narrative, 112. Detachments from four British battalions, and Iagers, artillery and cavalry.
1815. Wellington, Lett. to Alten, 6 June, in Gurw., Desp., XII. 446. You shall have the field Jägers in your division.
1837. Alison, Europe (1847), IX. xl. 112. The Austrian army consists of … twenty battalions of grenadiers, the corps of jagers of thirteen battalions [etc.].
1892. Nation (N. Y.), 6 Oct., 259/1. These jägers were good shots, and generally fired at gilt uniforms and epaulets.
attrib. 1844. W. Siborne, Waterloo, I. v. 110. The two jäger-companies in the wood.
3. An attendant upon a person of rank or wealth, dressed in a huntsman’s costume. Cf. CHASSEUR 3.
1831. Disraeli, Yng. Duke, II. viii. Supervised by his Jager, who stood behind his chair.
1835. Court Mag., VI. 193. The old Iager or garde-chasse who accompanied her.
1884. Q. Victoria, More Leaves, 279. He saw poor Macdonald the Jäger here … and, being in want of a Jäger, inquired after him and engaged him.
attrib. 1896. A. H. Beavan, Marlborough Ho., vii. 114. Macdonald, a handsome dark young fellow fully six feet high, clad in picturesque jäger costume.
4. A predatory sea-bird belonging to the family Laridæ, and subfamily Stercorariinæ or Lestridinæ; a skua-gull.
1838. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7), XVI. 633/1. The skua … the pomarine jager … and Richardson’s jager, which is common on our coasts in autumn.
1839. Penny Cycl., XIII. 337/1. Lestris Parasiticus (Arctic Jager).
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xiii. (1856), 99. The Fulmar petrel, a solitary jager.
1880. Libr. Univ. Knowl. (U.S.), VIII. 829. The jägers or gull hunters, so called because they pursue the smaller gulls, and rob them of … food.
1894. Outing (U.S.), XXIII. 366/2. We also killed some jaegers and small bladder-nosed seals.
