# camp

Pronunciation: say "KAMP" /kæmp/

## Noun

1. A place with tents, huts or other simple shelters where people stay for a time, especially outdoors.
   - Simple: A place with tents or simple huts where people stay for a short time, often outdoors.
   - _The expedition's camp sat on a ridge overlooking the valley._
   - _By dawn the camp had emptied and the climbers were on the trail._
2. An organized event, often held in tents or temporary lodging, that brings participants together for an activity.
   - Simple: A planned program where people, often children, spend time on an activity, sometimes staying overnight in tents.
   - _Hundreds of teenagers attended the leadership camp last August._
   - _The training camp ran for two weeks at the coastal resort._
4. A guarded place where prisoners of war, political prisoners or other detainees are held, often in harsh conditions.
   - Simple: A guarded place where people such as prisoners of war are kept, often in hard conditions.
   - _The regime built a camp for political prisoners in the remote north._
   - _Many who entered the camp died of starvation and overwork._
5. A base where a military group is stationed, not necessarily temporary.
   - Simple: A place where soldiers live, train, and are based.
   - _The new recruits reported to camp at sunrise._
   - _Officers inspected the border camp twice a week._
6. A group of people united by the same strong ideals or political position.
   - Simple: A group of people who share the same strong beliefs or take the same side.
   - _The debate split the party into two opposing camps._
   - _As the debate wore on, more and more delegates drifted into the reformist camp._
7. A prison or other place of incarceration of any kind. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A prison, or a place where prisoners are kept.
9. A style or taste that delights in exaggeration, artifice and theatrical excess, including work whose bad taste was never intended.
   - Simple: A loud, over-the-top style, or a way of enjoying such things, whether the excess was meant or not.
   - _The musical embraced camp with its glittering, absurd staging._
   - _Critics praised the film's affectionate use of camp._
8. The whole group of people gathered together in an encampment, considered as one body.
   - Simple: All the people who are staying together at one camp.
   - _The general addressed the camp before the battle began._
   - _Word spread through the camp that supplies were running low._
16. Any spot where a colonist stayed when away from their permanent residence, and all those locations taken together. *(India)*
   - Simple: Any place where a colonist stayed while away from their main home, or all those places together.

## Verb

3. To set up and stay in a tent or other temporary shelter, especially outdoors.
   - Simple: To stay somewhere in a tent or simple shelter for a short time, as on a trip.
   - _Each August they camp high in the mountains._
   - _Volunteers camped near the dig site throughout the season._
12. In video games, to stay in one spot, such as a hiding place or respawn point, to gain an advantage over other players.
   - Simple: In video games, to wait in one place to catch other players, rather than moving around.
   - _Some players prefer to camp by the objective and wait._
   - _Rather than explore the map, he camped on high ground for the entire round._
13. To behave in a deliberately theatrical, exaggerated, or effeminate manner.
   - Simple: To act in a very showy, over-the-top way on purpose.
   - _The host camped shamelessly, milking every line for laughs._
   - _They camp it up whenever the cameras start rolling._

## Adjective

10. Deliberately tasteless or vulgar in a knowing, self-parodying way.
   - Simple: Done in a way that is over-the-top and tasteless on purpose, almost making fun of itself.
   - _The wedding decor was gloriously camp, with plastic flamingos, leopard print, and gold tinsel on every table._
   - _She gave a camp performance that mocked the genre's clichés._
11. Of a person or their manner, flamboyantly theatrical, often in an exaggeratedly effeminate way.
   - Simple: Acting in a very showy, dramatic way, often in a style seen as overly feminine.
   - _The actor's camp style suited the over-the-top musical._
   - _His delivery was camp, full of grand sweeps and dramatic pauses._

## Verb

14. To provide someone with rest or a place to stay. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To give someone a place to rest or sleep.
19. To fight or contend in battle or contest; to strive against others; to compete. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To fight or compete against other people.
20. To wrangle; to quarrel in words. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To argue or quarrel with someone.

## Noun

15. Short for campus: the grounds and buildings of a college, university or school. *(rare)* — Clipping of campus
   - Simple: Short for campus: the grounds and buildings of a school or university.
17. A body of soldiers under arms; an army. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: An army, or a large group of soldiers.
18. Open conflict; armed battle. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A fight or battle.

## Other meanings

- (noun) An online game, sometimes involving roleplay, in which players compete against one another, usually structured like a competition show.
- (noun) In the Falkland Islands, all the land outside the capital, Stanley, which also forms one electoral district.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–8, 12, 14–20** — Latin campus ("open field, level plain") passed through Proto-West Germanic into Old English as camp ("battle, battlefield, open space"), which became Middle English kampe ("battlefield, open space"). Around 1520 Middle French camp, "place where an army lodges temporarily," reinforced it. Campus and champ are doublets. The verb comes from Old English campian ("to fight").
**Meanings 9–11, 13** — No one knows its origin. One idea is camper, a 17th-century French verb meaning "to put oneself in a pose." Others are an assumed dialect word in English meaning "rough, uncouth," or the noun camp. It is thought to come from Polari, but beyond that its history is obscure.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/camp (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).