ration
Americannoun
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rations
plural
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a fixed allowance of provisions or food, especially for soldiers or sailors or for civilians during a shortage.
a daily ration of meat and bread.
-
an allotted amount.
They finally saved up enough gas rations for the trip.
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rations,
-
provisions.
Enough rations were brought along to feed all the marchers.
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Chiefly South Atlantic States. food or meals.
The old hotel still has the best rations in town.
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verb (used with object)
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rations,
present (3rd person singular)
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rationed,
past participle, past
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rationing
present participle
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to supply, apportion, or distribute as rations (often followed byout ).
to ration out food to an army.
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to supply or provide with rations.
to ration an army with food.
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to restrict the consumption of (a commodity, food, etc.).
to ration meat during war.
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to restrict the consumption of (a consumer).
The civilian population was rationed while the war lasted.
noun
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a fixed allowance of food, provisions, etc, esp a statutory one for civilians in time of scarcity or soldiers in time of war
a tea ration
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( as modifier )
a ration book
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a sufficient or adequate amount
you've had your ration of television for today
verb
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(often foll by out) to distribute (provisions), esp to an army
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to restrict the distribution or consumption of (a commodity) by (people)
the government has rationed sugar
sugar is short, so I'll have to ration you
Synonym Usage
See food.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
rationsimple
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rationssimple
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have rationedperfect
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has rationedperfect
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am rationingprogressive
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are rationingprogressive
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is rationingprogressive
-
have been rationingperfect progressive
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has been rationingperfect progressive
Past
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rationedsimple
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had rationedperfect
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was rationingprogressive
-
were rationingprogressive
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had been rationingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of ration
First recorded in 1540–50; from French, from Latin ratiōn- (stem of ratiō ); see reason
Explanation
When you ration your supplies, you dole them out a little at a time. A ration is also a wartime military meal, or the portion of food that someone is allowed in times of scarcity. A ration is the fixed portion of food or other goods allowed to each person in times of shortages. In the military, a soldier’s meal is called a ration, especially if it’s portable. As a verb, to ration something is to allow each person to have only a specific amount. During times of war many things have been rationed: gas, rubber, luxury items, and food. If you are diabetic, you need to strictly ration your sugar intake.
Vocabulary lists containing ration
The Diary of Anne Frank
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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
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List 3
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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:
Where I lose patience, though, is when a director assumes the audience doesn’t have a collective brain cell among them and attempts to get away with serving action fans a ration of gruel.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
At 17:10, just after the power ration had kicked in, Mohammed remembers the strike hitting.
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026
Growth for the company’s Azure cloud-computing service has been hurt by Microsoft’s need to also ration out computing access to its other AI services and internal-development efforts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026
Private mini-markets and clothing stores with well-stocked shelves have largely supplanted state "bodegas" and ration books in the past five years since SMEs were introduced.
From Barron's ● Jun. 19, 2026
Auntie had sent me to the market with our ration book to get some potatoes, and I was on my way back home.
From "Code Name Kingfisher" by Liz Kessler
If AI doesn’t pan out or become profitable, or if people don’t start paying for it, we’ll have a lot of chips with which to measure our food rations.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 22, 2026
Detainees also say food rations were reduced, forcing them to buy costly items at the commissary.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026
After being a Tab obsessive for years before its discontinuation, Ward now carefully rations Coke Zero to avoid drinking three a day.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026
"We spent so many months with no fresh rations as the ships failed to reach here, or the limited vegetables they were carrying were spoiled during the long journey," she recalled.
From Barron's ● May 18, 2026
In the ship’s hold were stores for at least two years, including a recent innovation: concentrated Bovril sledging rations for the trans-Antarctic run on dogsleds.
From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong
After the second world war, sugar remained rationed in Britain for several years.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 26, 2026
The fact that marginal cost pricing would lead to reselling, creating windfall profits for anyone lucky enough to get a rationed ticket, does not alter the principle.
From Salon ● Jun. 14, 2026
In 2025 New York City’s summer-jobs program—the nation’s largest—drew roughly 200,000 applications for about 100,000 slots, and rationed them by lottery.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 9, 2026
Petrol and diesel are being rationed, and prices, already significantly higher than in neighbouring Thailand, have risen sharply.
From BBC ● Apr. 2, 2026
Running the tunnels during the war presented yet another logistical challenge, as the local power company rationed electricity.
From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly
"Two years ago rationing already started to be felt, and that in a restaurant is super complicated," he said.
From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026
In the 1949 classic, a small group of Londoners discover treasure and declare independence making them exempt from post-war rationing and other bureaucratic restrictions.
From Barron's ● Sep. 16, 2026
Reports of food rationing, clogged toilets and mental-health challenges sparked intense criticism from Democratic lawmakers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 5, 2026
This would include waiving of taxes on animal feed inputs, as well as "active retail price monitoring to deter opportunity price gouging and rationing".
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
Instead of the careful, responsible rationing she usually does, Mama is making breakfast like there is no war, like everything is normal.
From "Girl in the Blue Coat" by Monica Hesse
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.
