Meanings
plural pup tents
- A shelter tent.
- UShistoricalgovernmentA shelter half, one of two halves comprising a shelter tent or dog tent.
1 more example
Colonel Elbridge Colby in Army Talk tells us that the shelter-half, or “pup tent” made its debut during the Civil War. It seems to have been first christened “pup tent” by the Sixth Iowa Infantry at Memphis in 1862 and appears to stem etymologically from the same soldierly self-ridicule that resulted in such terms as “dogface” and “dog tags.”
1947 July, J.F.L., “Tenting Tonight”, in Infantry Journal, page 37
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Compound of pup (“puppy, small dog”) + tent, from dog tent, military slang for a shelter tent. Attested from the late 19th century.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
pup tent. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pup%20tent
“pup tent.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pup%20tent. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pup tent,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pup%20tent.
Source: pup tent on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.