camps

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of camp.

   Aid workers set up three temporary camps after the flooding.

   Rival political camps refused to compromise on the bill.

   Note

   A plural formed from the countable uses of camp: tent sites, organized events, military bases, single huts, and bodies of people encamped. It also extends to figurative factions, as in rival political camps. The same spelling is also the verb form in "she camps", so position settles which is meant. After a number, an article or an adjective it is the noun. After a singular subject it is the verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of camp.

   Whenever the weather warms, she camps along the northern coast for a week.

   The crew camps near the trailhead before every major climb.

   Note

   Present-tense agreement with a single subject, as in she camps or the crew camps. A collective noun like crew takes this form when the group acts as one. The ending also carries the transitive uses. Someone who stays beside something to gain an advantage camps it, with no preposition needed. The shared spelling with the plural noun is explained there.

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