Meanings
quonset1
Quonset2
plural Quonsets · alternative quonset
- USalsoattributiveA prefabricated building having a roof of corrugated iron and semicircular cross section.
They gave her a round white visitor's badge at one of the gates, and she parked in an enormous lot next to a quonset building painted pink and about a hundred yards long.
1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 591 more example
Besides the wind, sand, tumbleweed, and Joshua trees, there was nothing at Muroc except for two quonset-style hangars, side by side, a couple of gasoline pumps, a single concrete runway, a few tarpaper shacks, and some tents.
1979, Tom Wolfe, The Right StuffSynonyms: Quonset hut
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA prefabricated building having a roof of corrugated iron and semicircular cross section.
Origin
Named after Quonset Point, the place they were manufactured; the placename derives from an Algonquian language.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
quonset. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quonset
“quonset.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quonset. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “quonset,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/quonset.
Source: quonset on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.