backpack

plural backpacks · alternative back pack · alternative bagpack

1. A knapsack, sometimes mounted on a light frame, but always supported by straps, worn on a person’s back for the purpose of carrying things, especially when hiking, or on a student's back when carrying books.

   Many seats carry reservation labels, while the luggage racks are festooned with backpacks and suitcases.

   2022 November 30, Paul Bigland, “Destination Oban: a Sunday in Scotland”, in RAIL, number 971, page 77

   1 more example

   Rachel discovered that she could also keep things in her backpack that were important to her, nobody would know about them because they would be hidden. These important things included a small round rock that she had found […]

   2011, Thelma J. Miller, What's in Your Backpack?, page 8

2. A similarly placed item containing a parachute or other life support equipment.

present singular third person backpacks · participle present backpacking · participle past backpacked · past backpacked · alternative back pack · alternative bagpack

1. intransitiveTo hike and camp overnight in backcountry with one's gear carried in a backpack.

   I spent a month backpacking in the Rockies.

2. intransitiveTo engage in low-cost, generally urban, travel with minimal luggage and frugal accommodation.
3. raretransitiveTo place or carry (an item or items) in a backpack.

   Astronauts backpack oxygen during spacewalks.

   1 more example

   I planned to go to jungle today and backpacked my things which contained^([sic]) food and a note book.

   2020, Akara September 2020 Magazine, page 103