boot camp

American  

noun

U.S. Navy, Marines.

• boot camps
  plural

1. a camp for training recruits.

---

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

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• boot camps
  plural

Etymology

Origin of boot camp

An Americanism dating back to 1940–45

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

boot camp

For Season 1, the actors underwent a five-day medical boot camp to learn terminology and procedures, and to ask real-world doctors any questions they might have.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 5, 2026

Luckily, the military already has tests: boot camp, infantry school and the job itself.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026

I meet Draper, a billionaire tech investor himself, at Silicon Valley's Draper University, his boot camp for young tech founders, where students pledge to "promote freedom at all costs".

From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026

The CBC in those days was a bit like a boot camp for television.

From Salon ● Jul. 5, 2026

Knowing him, he’d probably send me right to military school or some kind of boot camp, like Scared Straight.

From "All American Boys" by Jason Reynolds