bare navy

noun

The situation where available food is limited to basic service rations.

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Meanings

nounbare navy (uncountable)
  1. UKslanguncountablegovernmentThe situation where available food is limited to basic service rations.

    Far too often, indeed, it was a case of 'bare Navy', the maritime equivalent to the soldier's 'hard-tack'; […]

    1959, Reginald Hargreaves, The Narrow Seas, page 296
    2 more examples

    "Three weeks we had been at sea on bare Navy, when we dropped anchor off Porthaven," said Long Jim. "Bare Navy, you understand, is regulation rations and nothing else, the canteen having run dry; […]

    1914, Leslie Cope Cornford, Echoes from the Fleet, page 62

    A tragic memory of Edwardian times, when butter or even margarine was a luxury in the Navy. Living on bare Navy symbolized having to exist on the coarse fare supplied by the Service.

    1946, Edwin Radford, Unusual Words and how They Came About, page 15
Cite this entry
APA

bare navy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bare%20navy

MLA

“bare navy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bare%20navy. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bare navy,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bare%20navy.

Source: bare navy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.