ration

plural rations

1. A portion of some limited resource, especially food, allocated to a person, group or period.

   Jack gathered his meager ration of food.

   3 more examples

   The town's ration of gasoline had to go to necessary vehicles.

   Betty had divided up her cigarettes to last all month, and her ration for today was only three.

   The corn ration was drastically reduced, and it was announced that an extra potato ration would be issued to make up for it.

   1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC

present singular third person rations · participle present rationing · participle past rationed · past rationed

1. transitiveTo supply with a ration; to limit (someone) to a specific allowance of something.

   We rationed ourselves to three sips of water a day until we were rescued.

2. transitiveTo portion out (especially during a shortage of supply); to limit access to.

   By the third day on the raft, we had to ration our water.

   1 more example

   But as our urban lives have grown more pressed for time, we have diced our opportunity costs finer and finer; from budgeting days or slabs of hours, we have come to rationing minutes.

   2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 06 Apr 2020

3. transitiveTo restrict (an activity etc.)

   I've rationed myself to one cup of coffee a day.

   2 more examples

   Our present health care system is rationed only to those who can afford it because of unnecessary high cost, lack of insurance coverage by 47 million people, and exorbitant prescription prices.

   A theocratic state in which an equation is drawn between the Catholic hierarchy and God and the rights of citizens may be rationed by the church according to its doctrines.

   1986 December 21, F. Jay Deacon, “Emotionally-Laden Prejudice”, in Gay Community News, volume 14, number 23, page 4