CAMP

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does camp mean? 

• CAMP (noun)
  The noun CAMP has 8 senses:

1. temporary living quarters specially built by the army for soldiers

2. a group of people living together in a camp

3. temporary lodgings in the country for travelers or vacationers

4. an exclusive circle of people with a common purpose

5. a penal institution (often for forced labor)

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

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

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

  Familiarity information: CAMP used as a noun is common.

• CAMP (adjective)
  The adjective CAMP has 1 sense:

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

  Familiarity information: CAMP used as an adjective is very rare.

• CAMP (verb)
  The verb CAMP has 3 senses:

1. live in or as if in a tent

2. establish or set up a camp

3. give an artificially banal or sexual quality to

  Familiarity information: CAMP used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CAMP (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Temporary living quarters specially built by the army for soldiers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

bivouac; camp; cantonment; encampment

Context example:

wherever he went in the camp the men were grumbling

Hypernyms ("camp" is a kind of...):

military quarters (living quarters for personnel on a military post)

Domain category:

armed forces; armed services; military; military machine; war machine (the military forces of a nation)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "camp"):

hutment (an encampment of huts (chiefly military))

laager; lager (a camp defended by a circular formation of wagons)

boot camp (camp for training military recruits)

Derivation:

camp (live in or as if in a tent)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A group of people living together in a camp

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Context example:

the whole camp laughed at his mistake

Hypernyms ("camp" is a kind of...):

assemblage; gathering (a group of persons together in one place)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "camp"):

hobo camp; jungle (a place where hoboes camp)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Temporary lodgings in the country for travelers or vacationers

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Context example:

level ground is best for parking and camp areas

Hypernyms ("camp" is a kind of...):

housing; living accommodations; lodging (structures collectively in which people are housed)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "camp"):

tennis camp (a camp where tennis is taught)

trailer camp; trailer park (a camp where space for house trailers can be rented; utilities are generally provided)

Derivation:

camp (live in or as if in a tent)

Sense 4

Meaning:

An exclusive circle of people with a common purpose

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

camp; clique; coterie; ingroup; inner circle; pack

Hypernyms ("camp" is a kind of...):

band; circle; lot; set (an unofficial association of people or groups)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "camp"):

Bloomsbury Group (an inner circle of writers and artists and philosophers who lived in or around Bloomsbury early in the 20th century and were noted for their unconventional lifestyles)

hard core (the most dedicated and intensely loyal nucleus of a group or movement)

galere; rogue's gallery (a coterie of undesirable people)

faction; sect (a dissenting clique)

maffia; mafia (any tightly knit group of trusted associates)

junta; military junta (a group of military officers who rule a country after seizing power)

cabal; camarilla; faction; junto (a clique (often secret) that seeks power usually through intrigue)

loop (an inner circle of advisors (especially under President Reagan))

brain trust; kitchen cabinet (an inner circle of unofficial advisors to the head of a government)

bohemia (a group of artists and writers with real or pretended artistic or intellectual aspirations and usually an unconventional life style)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A penal institution (often for forced labor)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Context example:

China has many camps for political prisoners

Hypernyms ("camp" is a kind of...):

penal facility; penal institution (an institution where persons are confined for punishment and to protect the public)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "camp"):

concentration camp; stockade (a penal camp where political prisoners or prisoners of war are confined (usually under harsh conditions))

labor camp; labour camp (a penal institution for political prisoners who are used as forced labor)

internment camp; POW camp; prison camp; prisoner of war camp (a camp for prisoners of war)

prison camp; prison farm; work camp (a camp for trustworthy prisoners employed in government projects)

Sense 6

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Context example:

the living room was pure camp

Hypernyms ("camp" is a kind of...):

staleness; triteness (unoriginality as a result of being dull and hackneyed)

Derivation:

camp (give an artificially banal or sexual quality to)

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

Sense 7

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

camp; refugee camp

Hypernyms ("camp" is a kind of...):

shelter (temporary housing for homeless or displaced persons)

Sense 8

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

camp; summer camp

Context example:

city kids get to see the country at a summer camp

Hypernyms ("camp" is a kind of...):

land site; site (the piece of land on which something is located (or is to be located))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "camp"):

day camp (a camp providing care and activities for children during the daytime)

• CAMP (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Synonyms:

camp; campy

Context example:

campy Hollywood musicals of the 1940's

Similar:

tasteless (lacking aesthetic or social taste)

• CAMP (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they camp    ... he / she / it camps   
Past simple: camped   
Past participle: camped   
-ing form: camping   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Live in or as if in a tent

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

bivouac; camp; camp out; encamp; tent

Context example:

The houseguests had to camp in the living room

Hypernyms (to "camp" is one way to...):

dwell; inhabit; live; populate (be an inhabitant of or reside in)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

camp (temporary living quarters specially built by the army for soldiers)

camp (temporary lodgings in the country for travelers or vacationers)

camper (someone living temporarily in a tent or lodge for recreation)

camping (the act of encamping and living in tents in a camp)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Establish or set up a camp

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

camp; camp down

Hypernyms (to "camp" is one way to...):

pitch; set up (erect and fasten)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 3

Meaning:

Give an artificially banal or sexual quality to

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "camp" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

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

 Context examples 

I had gone camping but once in my life, and then I left the party almost at its start and returned to the comforts and conveniences of a roof.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He built a fire and warmed himself by drinking quarts of hot water, and made camp on a rocky ledge in the same fashion he had the night before.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

When driven with his mates to the new owners’ camp, Buck saw a slipshod and slovenly affair, tent half stretched, dishes unwashed, everything in disorder; also, he saw a woman.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

For if I could see this radiance, might it not reach the eyes of Silver himself where he camped upon the shore among the marshes?

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

“He is in camp, near Montpezat, two hours' march from here, my fair lord,” said Johnston, the grizzled bowman who commanded the archers.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Health and nursing care given to campers at a summer or children's camp by a registered nurse.

(Camp Nursing, NCI Thesaurus)

An individual that resided in a camp for those displaced from their homeland.

(Lived in Refugee Camp, NCI Thesaurus)

One former Inuit camp on an islet off Ellesmere Island contained the rivets of a Norse boat – quite possibly a hunting trip that never returned.

(Over-hunting walruses contributed to the collapse of Norse Greenland, University of Cambridge)

At the more than 14,000-foot elevation, it's difficult to breathe, water freezes overnight in camps, and the scientists often must walk alone in search of fossils.

("Out of Tibet" hypothesis: Cradle of evolution for cold-adapted mammals is in Tibet, NSF)

During that time she ran free in a mining camp and wandered through woods or mountains, so that her education has come from Nature rather than from the schoolmaster.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)