Link Centre Dictionary

camp

UK/ˈkæmp/ US/ˈkʰæmp/ common british slang
noun (8) verb (3) adjective (1)

noun

1.

temporary living quarters specially built by the army for soldiers

  • “wherever he went in the camp the men were grumbling”
Synonyms
2.

a group of people living together in a camp

  • “the whole camp laughed at his mistake”
3.

temporary lodgings in the country for travelers or vacationers

  • “level ground is best for parking and camp areas”
4.
5.

a prison for forced laborers

  • “China has many work camps for political prisoners”
6.

something that is considered amusing not because of its originality but because of its unoriginality

  • “the living room was pure camp”
7.

shelter for persons displaced by war or political oppression or for religious beliefs

Synonyms
8.

a site where care and activities are provided for children during the summer months

  • “city kids get to see the country at a summer camp”
Synonyms

verb

1.

live in or as if in a tent

  • “Can we go camping again this summer?”
  • “The circus tented near the town”
  • “The houseguests had to camp in the living room”
Synonyms
2.

establish or set up a camp

Synonyms
3.

adjective

1.

providing sophisticated amusement by virtue of having artificially (and vulgarly) mannered or banal or sentimental qualities

  • “they played up the silliness of their roles for camp effect”
  • “campy Hollywood musicals of the 1940”
Synonyms
Similar

Origin

From Middle English kampe (“battlefield, open space”), from Old English camp (“battle, contest, battlefield, open space”), from Proto-West Germanic *kamp (“open field where military exercises are held, level plain”), from Latin campus (“open field, level plain”), from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂emp- (“to bend; crooked”). Reinforced circa 1520 by Middle French can, camp (“place where an army lodges temporarily”), from Old Northern French camp, from the same Latin (whence also French champ from Old French). Cognate with Old High German champf (“battle, struggle”) (German Kampf), Old Norse kapp (“battle”), Old High German hamf (“paralysed, maimed, mutilated”). Doublet of campus and champ. The verb is from Middle English campen, from Old English campian, compian (“to fight, war against”), from Proto-West Germanic *kampōn (“to fight, do battle”), from *kamp (“field, battlefield, battle”), see above. Cognate with Dutch kampen, German kämpfen (“to struggle”), Danish kæmpe, Swedish kämpa.

Phrases

  • auto camp
  • band camp
  • base camp
  • boot camp
  • Bovington Camp
  • break camp
  • Bulford Camp
  • Camp 1
  • camp as a row of tents
  • camp down
  • camp it up
  • camp out

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.