lascar

Alternative forms

• Lascar, lashkar, laskar

Etymology

Persian [Term?], from Arabic [Term?] (“guard, soldier”).

Noun

lascar (plural lascars)

1. A sailor, army servant or artilleryman from India or Southeast Asia.
   • 1919, W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence, chapter 47

     A motley crowd saunters along the streets — Lascars off a P. and O., blond Northmen from a Swedish barque, Japanese from a man-of-war, English sailors, Spaniards, pleasant-looking fellows from a French cruiser, negroes off an American tramp.

   • 1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow:

     ...and what foreigner is it, exactly, that Pirate has in mind if it isn't that stateless lascar across his own mirror-glass, that poorest of exiles...

Anagrams

• Claars, Rascal, craals, rascal, sacral, scalar

Verb

lascar (first-person singular present indicative lasco, past participle lascado)

1. to chip

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lasˈkaɾ/

Verb

lascar

1. (nautical, transitive) to slacken; slip