boot camp

American  

noun

U.S. Navy, Marines.

boot camps plural

1. a camp for training recruits.

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boot camp British  

noun

1. slang a basic training camp for new recruits to the US Navy or Marine Corps

2. a centre for juvenile offenders, with a strict disciplinary regime, hard physical exercise, and community labour programmes

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• boot camps
  plural

Etymology

Origin of boot camp

An Americanism dating back to 1940–45

Example Sentences

Someone said to me, “Maybe send an email out to the parents and let them know I’m not going to be putting them through boot camp, and making them do push-ups and screaming at them.”

From The Wall Street Journal • May 4, 2026

Bernadette Joy, founder of the financial boot camp Crush Your Money Goals, paid off $300,000 of debt in three years by making small, consistent changes to her behavior.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 11, 2026

At Chico State, Matthew Hernandez, a senior computer science major, enrolled in both a computer science boot camp, funded through Destino, and a calculus boot camp in the summer before his freshman year.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 3, 2026

Rush, who lived in Rochdale, auditioned for ITV talent show The X Factor in 2016, and made it as far as the "six-chair challenge", the stage between boot camp and judges' houses.

From BBC • Jan. 22, 2026

Uncle Darnell had things he didn’t have when he left for boot camp and then Vietnam—and I’m not talking about things in his duffel bag.

From "P.S. Be Eleven" by Rita Williams-Garcia