ration
[rash-uh n, rey-shuh n]
- 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.
- rations,
- provisions: Enough rations were brought along to feed all the marchers.
- Chiefly South Atlantic States.food or meals: The old hotel still has the best rations in town.
Show More
- to supply, apportion, or distribute as rations (often followed by out): to ration out food to an army.
- to supply or provide with rations: to ration an army with food.
- to restrict the consumption of (a commodity, food, etc.): to ration meat during war.
- to restrict the consumption of (a consumer): The civilian population was rationed while the war lasted.
Show More
Origin of ration
Synonyms
See more synonyms for ration on Thesaurus.comDictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for rationing
Contemporary Examples
It could be that doctors are rationing health care—refusing to schedule appointments.
Because it has, in the past, been a tool of racism and colonialism, and in the present, is a means of rationing health care.
And the Republican attacks on the health-care bill are replete with paranoia about rationing and death panels.
Meanwhile, horror stories about the rationing of cancer care by the American insurance industry abound.
Another charge about keeping outcomes data is that it will lead to rationing.
Historical Examples
There is scarcely any meat but horse-meat, and the government is now rationing.
Christmas: Its Origin and AssociationsWilliam Francis Dawson
At present, it is only attached to my command for convenience of rationing and pay.
Under Wellington's CommandG. A. Henty
"And here's just the man to take charge of rationing the water," said Cooper.
ShamanRobert Shea
She's done it simply because I told her to-night that rationing is definitely coming in.
The TitleArnold Bennett
Under the present system of rationing, this demand for moderation does not seem excessive.
ration
- a fixed allowance of food, provisions, etc, esp a statutory one for civilians in time of scarcity or soldiers in time of wara tea ration
- (as modifier)a ration book
- a sufficient or adequate amountyou've had your ration of television for today
Show More
- (often foll by out) to distribute (provisions), esp to an army
- 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
Show More
See also rations
Word Origin
C18: via French from Latin ratiō calculation; see reason
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for rationing
n.
"restriction to limited allotments," 1865, verbal noun from ration (v.). Specifically of restrictions during wartime from 1917, from conditions in England during World War I.
Show More
ration
n.
1550, "reasoning," later, "relation of one number to another" (1660s), then "fixed allowance of food" (1702, often rations, from French ration in this sense), from Latin rationem (nominative ratio) "a reckoning, calculation, proportion" (see ratio). The military pronunciation (rhymes with fashion) took over from the preferred civilian pronunciation (rhymes with nation) during World War I.
Show More
ration
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
rationing
A regulated allocation of resources among possible users.
Show More
Note
The U.S. government has engaged in rationing usually only under conditions of extreme shortage or economic hardship; certain resources were rationed, for example, during World War II.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.