Nissen hut

American  

[nis-uhn] / ˈnɪs ən /

noun

1. a prefabricated, tunnel-shaped shelter made of corrugated metal and having a concrete floor; Quonset hut: first used by the British army in World War I.

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Nissen hut British  

/ ˈnɪsən /

noun

1. US and Canadian equivalent: Quonset hut.  a military shelter of semicircular cross section, made of corrugated steel sheet

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Etymology

Origin of Nissen hut

1915–20; after Lieutenant Colonel Peter N. Nissen (1871–1930), Canadian military engineer who invented it

Example Sentences

She said she would be living in a structure like a Nissen hut - an Army structure - but had "been reassured it's quite cosy".

From BBC • Oct. 15, 2024

Rachel Whiteread has been commissioned to create a concrete cast of a Nissen hut, sited in the middle of Dalby Forest in North Yorkshire.

From BBC • May 15, 2018

I was in the Nissen hut, and a young woman came in and said, “It’s all over!”

From The Guardian • Jun. 6, 2015

At that point the track's familiarity hit me: I first heard it in a Nissen hut in about 1997 at a rehearsal by the Williams Fairey Band.

From The Guardian • Sep. 21, 2010

In Nissen huts near-by, were the machine-gun battalion and the signallers, and, as I had one end of a Nissen hut all to myself, I was very comfortable.

From The Great War As I Saw It by Scott, Frederick George