camp

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   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

2. 2
   noun

   temporary living quarters specially built by the army for soldiers

   Wherever they went in the camp the soldiers were grumbling.

3. 3
   noun

   temporary lodgings in the country for travelers or vacationers

   level ground is best for parking and camp areas

4. 4
   noun

   a penal institution, often for forced labor

   North Korea has many camps for political prisoners.

5. 5
   noun

   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

6. 6
   noun

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

   the living room was pure camp

7. 7
   noun

   a group of people living together in a camp

   The whole camp laughed at their mistake.

8. 8
   verb

   to establish or set up a camp

   We camped when we couldn't walk any further.

Etymology

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 (“ba…