camp

plural camps

1. countableuncountableAn outdoor place acting as temporary accommodation in tents or other simple structures.

   Near-synonyms: campsite, campground, encampment

   1 more example

   There's a big camp in the woods northwest of here. It's popular with hikers and bushcrafters.

   Synonyms: campsite, campground, encampment

2. countableuncountableAn organised event, often taking place in tents or temporary accommodation.

   He used to go to summer camp every alternate year.

   2 more examples

   I met my best friend last summer at camp. She lives in Albany and plays the clarinet.

   I met my girlfriend last summer at camp. You wouldn't know her — she lives in Canada.

3. countableuncountableA base of a military group, not necessarily temporary.

   Near-synonym: encampment

   1 more example

   Signs of enemy recon were found near their camp last week.

   Synonyms: encampment

4. countableuncountableA place of politically motivated confinement in outdoorsy conditions, usually also leading to slave labor and death.

   Near-synonyms: concentration camp, labor camp, reeducation camp, gulag, stalag, prison camp

   2 more examples

   Some say they'll round us all up into camps, but if they come for us, we'll take some out with us, on our way out.

   Mr. Ahn Myong-Chol was a prison guard at Camp 22 in Hoeryong and a driver at the camps. He was there between 1990 and 1994. He is the one who reported that prisoners had been used for human experimentation inside the camps.

   2013 June 18, Esther Felden, “Hell on earth”, in Deutsche Welle, archived from the original on 22 Jun 2015

   Synonyms: concentration camp, labor camp, reeducation camp, gulag, stalag, prison camp

5. countableuncountableA single hut or shelter.

   a hunter’s camp

6. collectivecountableuncountableThe company or body of persons encamped.

   The camp broke up with the confusion of a flight.

   1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter IX, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC

7. collectivecountableuncountableA group of people with the same strong ideals or political leanings.

   Near-synonyms: faction, ingroup

   1 more example

   She's in the camp that speaks as if all vaccines were poisons.

   Synonyms: faction, ingroup

8. countableobsoleteuncountableAn army.

   My Campe is like to Iulius Cæſars Hoſte, That neuer fought but had the victorie:

   c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii

9. AustraliacountableuncountableA site where kangaroos and other macropods rest during the day.

   ‘We must have sat down on a kangaroo camp when we boiled the billy at midday,’ I remarked irritably. Laurie laughed while I burned three kangaroo ticks from my legs.

   1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 82

10. abbreviationclippingcountableuncommonuncountableClipping of campus
11. countableslanguncountableAny prison or prison camp.

    Lantana is a sweet camp. It's an old hospital that has been converted to a drug treatment center for prisoners.

    2009, Nick Chandler, Jeanette Billings, Determined to Change: The Autobiography of Nick Chandler, page 184

12. countablemisconstructionuncountableagricultureMisconstruction of clamp (“mound of earth in which potatoes and other vegetables are stored”).
13. BritishIndiacountableuncountableAnywhere that a colonist stayed when away from their permanent residence; such places collectively.

    Then the Rains came, when no one could go into camp, and the Narkarra Road was washed away by the Kasun River, and in the cup-like pastures of Kashima the cattle waded knee-deep.

    1889, Rudyard Kipling, “A Wayside Comedy”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 62

14. countableobsoleteuncountableConflict; battle.
15. countableuncountableAn online game, in some cases roleplay, in which people compete against each other, usually in a structure similar to that of a competition show.
16. collectivecountableuncountableA colony or other group of bats.

    Her mouth opens so wide, a camp of bats could fly in.

    2022, Lystra Rose, The Upwelling

    2 more examples

    The house owner got panic after seeing the camp of bats.

    2019 December 23, Speed News Nest, “It's weird! 1700 bats invade flat and make their love nest”, in Catch News, archived from the original on 31 Jul 2026

    The camp of bats then settled on the ceiling, hanging upside down with their beady eyes shining like stars in the torchlight.

    2013, T.D. Pierce, Captain Wilder Part One, Friesen Press, page 44

present singular third person camps · participle present camping · participle past camped · past camped

1. To live in a tent or similar temporary accommodation.

   We're planning to camp in the field until Sunday.

   1 more example

   A few hours before sundown we camped at a small playa lake sunk beneath the level of the grass.

   2013, Philipp Meyer, The Son, Simon & Schuster, published 2014, page 73

2. To set up a camp.
3. transitiveTo afford rest or lodging for.

   Had our great palace the capacity / To camp this host, we all would sup together.

   c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene viii]

4. intransitivehobbiesTo stay in an advantageous location.

   Some players like to camp next to a power-up's spawning point.

   2 more examples

   ‘So things have gone all right with a little watchfulness and the help of old Cockeye here and her buck. They camp just there, right close to the hut, and have been real faithful these last two years.’

   1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 243

   Yet, even without the three second rule, where your big man could camp underneath and take those delightful “garbage” shots, there was little or no pivot offense, no cutting off the bucket.

   1962, Coach & Athlete, page 18

5. transitivevideo gamesTo stay beside (something) to gain an advantage.

   Go and camp the flag for the win.

   1 more example

   The easiest way to win on this map is to camp the double damage.

6. AustraliaintransitiveOf stock animals, to assemble or rest temporarily at a particular place.

   The bullocks camped in front on the big fire, with the black line of trees facing them.

   1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 10

7. abbreviationellipsistransitivevideo gamesEllipsis of corpse camp.
8. intransitiveobsoleteTo fight; contend in battle or in any kind of contest; to strive with others in doing anything; compete.

   1562, Leigh, The Accedens of Armory ː Aristotle affirmeth that Rauens will gather together on sides, and campe and fight for victorie.

9. intransitiveobsoleteTo wrangle; argue.

1. uncountableAn affected, exaggerated, or intentionally tasteless style.

   Near-synonyms: campness, campiness

   2 more examples

   We walk a fine line, just this side of camp. Careful calculations are made. We sense that while it might be wonderful for Krystle and Alexis to have a catfight in a koi pond, it would be inappropriate for Joan to smack Linda with a koi.

   1985 September 2, Joe Klein, quoting Douglas S. Cramer, “The Real Star of ‘Dynasty’”, in New York, page 34

   Why would any Hollywood studio encourage a film's transformation into camp, in effect joining in the mockery of its own product? MGM declined to comment.

   1996 March 31, Trip Gabriel, “Showgirls' Crawls Back As High Camp at Midnight”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   Synonyms: campness, campiness

comparative camper · superlative campest

1. Theatrical; making exaggerated gestures.
2. Ostentatiously flamboyant or effeminate.

   More recently the word has become colloquial English for either implying that someone is a homosexual (‘he's very camp’), or for describing rather outre behaviour[…]

   2007, David Rothwell, Dictionary of Homonyms, Wordsworth Editions, →ISBN, page 88

   1 more example

   And to be honest, in the illustration Mr Tumnus does look as camp as fuck with his little scarf tied jauntily around his neck. I suppose it isn't outside the realms of possibility that he'd just been off cottaging with some centaurs in the forest. God.

   2014, Sarah Lotz, The Three, Hachette UK, →ISBN

3. Intentionally tasteless or vulgar; self-parodying.

   In Saturday Night Live, Madonna also unsurprisingly played Princess Diana, Marilyn Monroe, and a Joan Collins clone, all in a very camp way. As John Dean writes: “U.S. rock has a ruling camp queen with Madonna.”

   2002, Georges-Claude Guilbert, Madonna as Postmodern Myth, McFarland, →ISBN, page 123

   1 more example

   Here is Eurovision from a time before anyone watched it for camp value – you can’t imagine any gay bar in 1974 clearing its schedules to screen this; a Eurovision that takes itself rather seriously, a brief appearance by the Wombles notwithstanding.

   2024 April 5, Alexis Petridis, “Abba, cabaret and smug marionettes: the 1974 Eurovision song contest reviewed!”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

present singular third person camps · participle present camping · participle past camped · past camped

1. To behave in a camp manner.

   Oster and his two co-stars, Jamie MacKenzie and Bill Martel, boogie and bop, sway and swish, camp and croon through tightly worked production numbers addressing a range of serious (and not so serious) issues that middle class, urban gay men come up against.

   1988 April 9, Gordon Gottlieb, “The Urban Gay Camp and Croon”, in Gay Community News, page 11

   Synonyms: camp it up

plural camps

1. countableslanguncountableFalkland IslandsThe areas of the Falkland Islands situated outside the capital and largest settlement, Stanley.
2. countableslanguncountableAn electoral constituency of the legislative assembly of the Falkland Islands that comprises all territory more than 3.5 miles from the spire of the Christ Church Cathedral in Stanley.
3. countableslanguncountableThe pampas, which are the vast grassy areas situated in the rural areas beyond Argentine cities such as Buenos Aires.

1. abbreviationinitialismmedicineInitialism of cyclic AMP.

plural Camps

1. countableuncountableA diminutive of the male given name Campbell.
2. countableuncountableA surname.
3. A placename
   1. countableuncountableA village on the Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, Ireland.
   2. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Pike County, Ohio, United States.
   3. abbreviationcountableellipsisuncountableEllipsis of Camp County

1. abbreviationacronymAcronym of Central Atlantic magmatic province.

plural CAMPs

1. abbreviationaeronauticsAbbreviation of continuous airworthiness maintenance program

   Synonyms: continuous airworthiness maintenance program