waterbag

plural waterbags · alternative water-bag · alternative water bag

1. A bag for carrying water.

   The men took their lunch, usually Romano cheese, ham or Italian sausage and bread, and a waterbag.

   2011, Lenore Layman, Criena Fitzgerald, 110 degrees in the Waterbag, →ISBN, page 165

   3 more examples

   Who'll come a'waltzing Matilda my darling Who'll come a'waltzing Matilda with me Waltzing Matilda and leading a water-bag Who'll come a'waltzing Matilda with me.

   1895, “Waltzing Matilda”, Banjo Paterson (lyrics)

   We had no waterbags. We lived on the veldfoods that quite by chance I had learned to pick out by keeping an eye on the bearers.

   1983, Wilma Stockenström, translated by J. M. Coetzee, The Expedition to the Baobab Tree, London: Faber & Faber, page 90

   Somewhat later, Ayla picked up her waterbag to get a drink, found it empty, then put it down and forgot about her thirst.

   2010, Jean M. Auel, The Shelters of Stone, →ISBN

2. historicalThe bag-like compartment in a camel's hump in which the animal was once believed to store water; in fact it is fatty tissue.