A shallow lake of north-central Africa in Chad, Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria. It was first explored by Europeans in 1823. Scraps or bits of paper, such as the perforated edges of paper for tractor feed printers or the tiny rectangles punched out from data cards. a country in north central Africa, between Niger and Sudan. Population: 8,707,000 (2001) Capital: N'djamena. French Tchad Country, north-central Africa