canteen

Borrowed from French cantine, itself borrowed from Italian cantina. Doublet of cantina.

• enPR: kăn-tēnʹ
• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /kænˈtiːn/, /kænˈtin/
• (æ-tensing) IPA^(key): [kʰɛə̯nˈtin]

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːn

canteen (plural canteens)

1. A small cafeteria or snack bar, especially one in a military establishment, school, or place of work.

   He ordered a salad at the canteen.

   1. (Hong Kong, India, Malaysia) A cafeteria in a school or place of work.
   2. Goods purchased from a prison canteen.
      • 1984 December 29, Mykki Balduff, “Prisons and Roles”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 25, page 6:

        Yeah, I worked that bitch. She was buying me all the canteen I wanted.

      • 2015 November 23, Melvin L. Boone, “Dark Corners”, in Pen America‎^[1]:

        “Well, le’me give you some advice,” he continued. “If someone offers you some canteen, don’t take it.”
        I instinctively knew what he was warning me against. But I felt slightly disrespected because it wasn’t as if I were a frail young girl who might go out on a date with someone and feel obligated to have sex because the guy had bought me a Happy Meal. The way I saw it, if someone wanted to give me some canteen, I was getting something for nothing!

      • 2024 September 11, Jordangander, “More about solitary: I get conflicting results when I look up what modern solitary is like...?”, in r/Prison‎^[2]:

        Administrative Confinement, sort of like a jail inside the prison, this is for those waiting on disciplinary court for a violation, or under investigation, plus other things. 2 man cells, allowed your tablets, some property, some canteen including food, reading books. 4 hours outside exercise weekly after 30 days.

2. A temporary or mobile café used in an emergency or on a film location etc.
3. A box with compartments for storing eating utensils, silverware etc.
4. A military mess kit.
6. A water bottle, flask, or other vessel, typically used by a soldier or camper as a bottle for carrying water or liquor for drink
   • 1862, John Williamson Palmer, Stonewall Jackson's Way:

     Come, stack arms, Men! Pile on the rails; stir up the campfire bright; no matter if the canteen fails, we'll make a roaring night. Here Shenandoah brawls along, there burly Blue Ridge echoes strong, to swell the Brigade's rousing song, of “Stonewall Jackson’s Way.”

• Cantonese: can (ken⁶, ken^6-2, “canteen; cafeteria; restaurant”)

• “canteen”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “canteen”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “canteen”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

canteen

1. inflection of cantear:
   1. third-person plural present subjunctive
   2. third-person plural imperative