DCHP-1 Online

camp

• 1a n. a temporary shelter, often at a stopping place in the bush.

  See also: half-camp  lean-to (def. 2)  

  • 1782  Men's gear is much wanted such as thick clothes also a few blankets . . . as some men are obliged to sleep without blankets in the camp.
  • 1831  (1833)  About an hour before the nightfall preparation is made for sleeping, and what is termed a camp is formed for this purpose, in a summary way, by placing a ridge pole of ten feet upon two forked sticks six feet in length, and stuck firmly in the ground. Against this ridge pole are laid, at one side, a set of poles, obliquely; leaving the other side which forms the front entirely open, not only to admit the heat of a large fire, which is lighted up before it, but the smoke, also, to banish the musquetos.

• 1b n. a small and wretched dwelling; hut.

  • 1830  It is amusing to see a family . . . landing near the market-place at Halifax, from their "camp" on the opposite shore.
  • 1849  A poor man, his wife and several children, all dwelt in one small "camp," or hut in the forest.
  • 1931  Log houses and bark "lean-tos," or camps, sheltered most of the civilians . . . but the soldiers spent the first winter under canvas

• 1c n. N.B. See 1832 quote.

  See also: shanty ((n.)) (def. 1b)  

  • 1832  They commence by . . . building a shanty, or camp of round logs, the walls of which are seldom more than four or five feet high; the roof is covered with birch bark or boards. A pit is dug in the camp to preserve anything liable to injury from the frost. The fire is either in the middle, or at one end; the smoke goes out through the roof.
  • 1872  In front of the fire on one side, and running the whole length of the camp, is a bench, hewn out of spruce or fir. . . .

• 2 n. Rare a domed structure of mud, sticks, stones, etc. built as a rule in a beaver pond behind the dam and used as a den by a family of beavers.

  See also: beaver lodge  

  • 1888  (1890)  Judging from the lot of beaver dams here, the number of camps and the amount of work they have done, there must be about thirty or forty beaver.

• 3 † n. a summer cottage.

  • 1948  [Haligonians] were sitting at their evening meals, some probably planning to spend the evening at the lovely Public Garden or at their camps or at the incomparable North West Arm; when suddenly a terrific blast rent the air.
  • 1959  [He] has a summer cottage at Castleford, on the Ottawa River . . . Meanwhile the antique is headed for the camp at Castleford.

• 4 n. Obs. the place in a sugar bush where sugaring-off (def. 1) takes place, including the building and equipment.

  See also: camp-house  sugar-camp  sugaring-off (def. 1)  

  • 1826  A notch is cut or a hole bored into each tree, and a small wooden trough placed to catch the sap, when it is carried in pails or drawn in barrels placed on an ox sled, to the "Camp," and evaporated by boiling down to the proper consistence.
  • 1838  A camp will make . . . between three and four hundredweight [of maple sugar]

• 5 n. the tents, buildings and general working area of a community (often temporary) of miners, fishermen, etc. in remote areas.

  See also: campsite (def. 3)  

  • 1859  Rose's Bar . . . is a small [placer mining] camp about 50 miles above the Forks.
  • 1958  At present, her six-man crew is bringing troll fish from camps on the west coast of Vancouver Island.