cantonment
nounUK /kanˈtɒnmənt/ · /kanˈtuːnmənt/
Etymology From French cantonnement.
1
Temporary military living quarters.
- On the Umballa platform waited a detachment of officers discussing the latest news from the stricken cantonment, and it was here that Bobby learned the real condition of the Tail Twisters.1889, Rudyard Kipling, “Only A Subaltern”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 145:
2
A town or village, or part of a town or village, assigned to a body of troops for quarters.
- The cantonments, it transpired, were singularly ill-sited for defence, being built on low, marshy ground, overlooked by hills on all sides.1990, Peter Hopkirk, The Great Game, Folio Society, published 2010, page 220: