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Webster 1913 Edition

Noun.

[Gael.

ceatharnach

. Cf.

Irish foot soldier.]

A Highland robber: a kind of irregular soldier.

[Scot.]

Sir W. Scott.

cateran ‎(plural caterans)

(historical) A Highlander working as a professional fighter; a mercenary attached to a Scottish clan.
- 1932, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Sunset Song:
  And the great-grandson of Cospatric, he joined the English against the cateran Wallace […].
- 2009, John Sadler, Glencoe, Amberley 2009, p. 41:
  They found the hire of lawyers more cost-effective than the maintenance of caterans.
A freebooter, marauder.

Highlander

freebooter