camper

noun

1. a person who camps out for recreation, especially in the wilderness.
2. a person who attends a summer camp or day camp.
3. Also called pickup camper, truck camper. a trucklike vehicle, van, or trailer that is fitted or suitable for recreational camping, or a pickup truck on which a structure fitted for camping is mounted.

verb (used without object)

4. to travel and live in a vehicular camper: We’re going to camper for two weeks during our vacation.

noun

1. something that provides sophisticated, knowing amusement, as by virtue of its being artlessly mannered or stylized, self-consciously artificial and extravagant, or teasingly ingenuous and sentimental.
2. a person who adopts a teasing, theatrical manner, especially for the amusement of others.

verb (used without object)

3. Also camp it up. to speak or behave in a coquettishly playful or extravagantly theatrical manner.

adjective

4. campy: camp Hollywood musicals of the 1940s.

noun

1. a person who lives or temporarily stays in a tent, cabin, etc
2. a vehicle equipped for camping out

noun

1. Walter (Chauncey). 1859–1925, US sportsman and administrator; he introduced new rules to American football, which distinguished it from rugby.

noun

1. a place where tents, cabins, or other temporary structures are erected for the use of military troops, for training soldiers, etc
2. the military life
3. tents, cabins, etc, used as temporary lodgings by a group of travellers, holiday-makers, Scouts, etc
4. the group of people living in such lodgings
5. Southern African a field or paddock fenced off as pasture
6. a group supporting a given doctrine or theorythe socialist camp
7. Australian a place where sheep or cattle gather to rest
8. (modifier) suitable for use in temporary quarters, on holiday, etc, esp by being portable and easy to set upa camp bed; a camp chair

verb

9. (intr often foll by down) to establish or set up a camp
10. (intr often foll by out) to live temporarily in or as if in a tent
11. (tr) to put in a camp

adjective

1. effeminate; affected in mannerisms, dress, etc
2. homosexual
3. consciously artificial, exaggerated, vulgar, or mannered; self-parodying, esp when in dubious taste

verb

4. (tr) to perform or invest with a camp quality
5. camp it up
   1. to seek to focus attention on oneself by making an ostentatious display, overacting, etc
   2. to flaunt one’s homosexuality

noun

6. a camp quality, style, etc

n.

1630s, “soldier,” agent noun from camp (v.). Meaning “attendee at a camp meeting” is from 1806; meaning “one who sleeps in temporary quarters outdoors” is from 1856; that of “motor vehicle with sleeping quarters” is from 1960. Extended use of happy camper is from c.1987.

v.

“to encamp,” 1540s, from camp (n.). Related: Camped; camping.

n.

“place where an army lodges temporarily,” 1520s, from French camp, from Italian campo, from Latin campus “open field, level space” (also source of French champ; see campus), especially “open space for military exercise.”

A later reborrowing of the Latin word, which had been taken up in early West Germanic as *kampo-z and appeared originally in Old English as camp “contest, battle, fight, war.” This was obsolete by mid-15c. Transferred to non-military senses 1550s. Meaning “body of adherents of a doctrine or cause” is 1871. Camp-follower first attested 1810. Camp-meeting is from 1809, originally usually in reference to Methodists.

adj.

“tasteless,” 1909, homosexual slang, of uncertain origin, perhaps from mid-17c. French camper “to portray, pose” (as in se camper “put oneself in a bold, provocative pose”); popularized 1964 by Susan Sontag’s essay “Notes on Camp.” Campy is attested from 1959.

abbr.

1. cyclic AMP

In addition to the idioms beginning with camp

• camp follower
• camp it up
• camp out

also see:

• break camp
• foot in both camps
• happy camper