bivouac
/ˈbɪv.u.æk/
bivouac noun: an encampment for the night, usually without tents or covering.
Noun
bivouac (plural bivouacs)
- An encampment for the night, usually without tents or covering.
- Townsend hare inhabit this area, particularly above the cabin, and a skier is likely to have one explode from a tree well and disappear into the whiteness as he skis by. Life is a constant bivouac for them -- they spend days huddled in tree wells during storms -- but I suspect they are as content...2014, Patrick Armstrong, The Log of a Snow Survey, →ISBN
- Any temporary encampment.
- A temporary shelter constructed generally for a few nights.
- Behold the Mansion reared by Dædal Jack!
See the Malt stored in many a plethoric sack,
In the proud cirque of Juan's bivouac!1977, K.M. Elizabeth Murray, Caught in the Web of Words, Oxford: Oxford University Press, page 63 - The outing begins by Thursday noon, when the recreational vehicles start rumbling into town and their owners set up bivouacs.September 23, 2005, Boston Globe
- Behold the Mansion reared by Dædal Jack!
- The watch of a whole army by night, when in danger of surprise or attack.
- A structure formed by migratory ants out of their own bodies to protect the queen and larvae.
- Army ants (genus Eciton) migrating and gathering in a bivouac.2026 July 8, “Observe an Eciton army ant colony migrating by night and forming a bivouac nest entirely out of themselves”, in Britannica
- High in the rafters, a bivouac of ants swayed uneasily in the draught created by the shutting of the heavy, old, wooden door.2022, Ian D. Hall, Underneath, Beaten Track Publishing
Verb
bivouac (third-person singular simple present bivouacs or bivouacks, present participle bivouacing or bivouacking, simple past and past participle bivouacked)
- To set up camp.
- We'll bivouac here tonight.
- They reached the fir wood which had caused them so much trouble while it was still daylight, and bivouacked in a hollow just above it. It was tedious gathering the fire wood; […]1951, C. S. Lewis, Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia
- To watch at night or be on guard, as a whole army.
- To encamp for the night without tents or covering.
bivouac meaning in Urdu, Bengali and Kannada
bivouac in Urdu
- پڑاؤ
bivouac in Bengali
- অস্থায়ী শিবির
bivouac in Kannada
- ತಾತ್ಕಾಲಿಕ ಶಿಬಿರದಲ್ಲಿರು, ಪಾಳೆಯದಲ್ಲಿರು
Forms of bivouac
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | bivouacs |
| alternative form | bivouack |
| alternative form | bivy |
| alternative form | bivvy |
| alternative form (obsolete) | biouac |
| alternative form (obsolete) | bivoac |
| alternative form (obsolete) | bihovac |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | bivouacs |
| third-person singular present | bivouacks |
| present participle | bivouacing |
| present participle | bivouacking |
| past participle | bivouacked |
| past | bivouacked |
Origin of bivouac
Unadapted borrowing from French bivouac (earlier biouac, bivac), from Alemannic German Biiwacht (“reinforcements of guard or town watch”), from bii- + Wacht (“watch, guard”).
Words formed from bivouac
Phrases with bivouac
Words that rhyme with bivouac
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- plaque
- whack
- slack
- Cadillac
- swack
- thwack
- pac
- shack
- cack
- clack
- gack
- lack
- smack
- unpack
- wrack
- aback
- flak
- hark back
- mack
- claque
- flack
- knack
- quack
- shellac
- snack
- yak
- Aach
- ack
- gak
- mac
- Meshach
- multitrack
- plack
- snacc
- wack
- akh
- alack
- awrack
- brach
- cac
- Cayman Brac
- Chiraq
- cook back
- craic
- diclofenac
- dictionary attack
- dime back
- fac
Questions about bivouac
- What does bivouac mean?
- Bivouac means an encampment for the night, usually without tents or covering.
- What is bivouac in Urdu?
- Bivouac in Urdu is پڑاؤ. See Bivouac meaning in Urdu.
- What part of speech is bivouac?
- Bivouac can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce bivouac?
- Bivouac is pronounced /ˈbɪv.u.æk/.
- What is the plural of bivouac?
- The plural of bivouac is bivouacs.
Words near bivouac in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bivouac (page history and authors); bivouac (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bivouac (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bivouac (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-bivouac.ogg.
Cite this entry: “bivouac.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bivouac. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.