canteen

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A snack bar or small cafeteria, as on a military installation.
2. n. A recreational facility, bar, or small general store formerly established for the patronage of soldiers.
3. n. A recreation hall or social club where refreshments are available.
4. n. A temporary or mobile eating place, especially one set up in an emergency.
5. n. A flask for carrying drinking water, as on a hike.
6. n. A box with compartments for carrying cooking gear and eating utensils.
7. n. A soldier's mess kit.
8. n. Chiefly British A box used to store silverware.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A sort of sutler's shop in barracks, camps, garrisons, etc., where provisions, liquors, etc., are sold.
2. n. A vessel used by soldiers for carrying water or liquor for drink. In the British army the canteen is a small vessel capable of containing 3 pints, which is carried by each soldier on the march, on foreign service, or in the field. In the United States army the regulation canteen is of tin, covered with a woolen fabric, is circular in shape, with sharp periphery and bulging sides like a double-convex lens, fitted with a cylindrical spout stopped by a cork, and holds about 3 pints; it is slung over the shoulder. A much larger kind, of the same materials, but with fiat sides, and holding a gallon or more, is sometimes used, but not commonly carried on the person.
3. n. A square box, fitted up with compartments, in which British officers on foreign service pack a variety of articles, as spirit-bottles, tea and sugar, plates, knives, forks, etc.

Wiktionary

1. n. a small cafeteria or snack bar, especially one in a military establishment, school, or place of work
2. n. a temporary or mobile café used in an emergency or on a film location etc
3. n. a box with compartments for storing eating utensils, silverware etc
4. n. a military mess kit
5. n. A water bottle used by a soldier or camper.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A small vessel used by soldiers or hikers for carrying water, liquor, or other drink.
2. n. A chest containing culinary and other vessels for military officers in a garrison.
3. n. The sutler's shop in a garrison.
4. n. A store or small shop within a larger establishment where refreshments and sometimes other supplies are sold. At a military base the canteen may be as large as a general store; within a school or small company it may be only a small counter with very limited supplies, or a snack bar.
5. n. A temporary location where food is dispensed during an emergency.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a flask for carrying water; used by soldiers or travelers
2. n. sells food and personal items to personnel at an institution or school or camp etc.
3. n. a restaurant outside; often for soldiers or policemen
4. n. a recreation room in an institution
5. n. restaurant in a factory; where workers can eat