[f. prec. sb.]
1. Mil. Of troops: To remain, esp. during the night, in the open air, without tents or covering. Also To be bivouacked: to be so posted or disposed.
1809. Sir J. Moore, To Ld. Castlereagh, 13 Jan. In two forced marches, bivouacing for six or eight hours in the rain, I reached Betanzos on the 10th instant.
1815. J. Croker, in Croker Papers (1884), I. iii. 61. The Carrousel, where about 2000 Prussians are bivouacked.
1882. Pebody, Eng. Journalism, xxii. 180. As if the British army were bivouacked on the Hog’s Back.
2. transf. To rest or pass the night in the open air.
1814. Scott, Wav., II. i. 8. These distinguished personages bivouacked among the flowery heath, wrapped up in their plaids.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 3. 29. That night we bivouacked together.
Hence Bivouacking vbl. sb.
1810. Morn Chron., 17 March, 2/1. The whole division … halted, taking up its ground in two lines, and bivouacking for the night.
1812. Examiner, 7 Dec., 771/2. Night bivouacings are very injurious.
1861. C. J. Andersson, Okavango River, xvii. 192. We could not have selected a worse spot for bivouacking.
