haversack
Americannoun
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haversacks
plural
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a single-strapped bag worn over one shoulder and used for carrying supplies.
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a soldier's bag for rations, extra clothing, etc.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of haversack
1740–50; earlier havresack < French havresac < German Habersack, equivalent to Haber oats (compare dialectal English haver < Old Norse hafrar oats) + Sack sack 1
Vocabulary lists containing haversack
The American Civil War
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Novel Study: Harriet Tubman, Chapters 11–22
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He has one green parakeet feather in his haversack.
From New York Times ● Apr. 1, 2012
And now it has its metaphorical haversack over its brave, small metaphorical shoulders and is trotting off to do some Youth Hostelling in Indonesia without me.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 18, 2011
He'd arrive on his bike, his haversack full of groceries, and he'd spend the afternoon with us.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 26, 2010
Last week as they edged ahead through central Eritrea each Sikh wore a turban on his head, obediently dangled a British helmet from his haversack.
From Time Magazine Archive
“I thought we’d use the microscope today,” he said, securing it in its case and nestling it in his haversack.
From "The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate" by Jacqueline Kelly
On the end page of W T Palmer's 1939 book, there's an illustration of two exhausted but very contented little penguins, reposing on their haversacks.
From BBC ● Apr. 2, 2018
Said dramatic Mr. Hore-Belisha: "It is a time when the nation must sleep on its haversacks."
From Time Magazine Archive
A handful of spectators watched the Dyaks unload their sleeping mats and haversacks from the trucks.
From Time Magazine Archive
F of continuous marching and fighting; they had started with almost empty haversacks, and it had not been possible to supply them.
From Vermont riflemen in the war for the union, 1861 to 1865 A history of Company F, First United States sharp shooters by William Y. W. Ripley
We had hardly time to promise to come back before we were equipped and pushed out by Linn with well-plenished haversacks.
From A Tatter of Scarlet Adventurous Episodes of the Commune in the Midi 1871 by S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
