From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbivouacbiv‧ou‧ac1 /ˈbɪvu-æk/ noun [countable] DLOPMa temporary camp built outside without any tents
Examples from the Corpus
bivouac• On descent he met Wanda at 8,300 metres and helped her arrange a bivouac.• Now it's all Boy Scout stuff and bivouacs and tents.• They had bivouacs, sleeping bags and cold-weather anoraks.• The sun dropped below the horizon, the minutes ticked by and an involuntary bivouac began to seem a possibility.• Their bayonets flashed through the obscurity, lighted up by the bivouac fires.• That evening the bivouac fires of the two armies were a scant mile apart.• Their bivouac in the rain and snow was less comfortable than at their former stations, where they had constructed some shelter.• But although I said I was reasonably Spartan, this bare Nissen hut and my little windy bivouac pall a bit at times.bivouacbivouac2 verb (bivouacked, bivouacking) [intransitive] DLOto spend the night outside without tents in a temporary camp The climbers bivouacked halfway up the mountain.→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
bivouac• Mayor Art Agnos invited the homeless to bivouac in Civic Center for more than a year while he chewed on the problem.• It is now an acceptable place to bivouac or just to break for lunch in bad weather.• Participants with experience of the wilderness will be welcome to bivouac through the night.Origin bivouac1 (1700-1800) French Low German biwake, from bi “at” + wake “guard” 