Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To depart secretly or suddenly.
- v. To depart from a camp or camping ground.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To depart from a camp or camping-ground; break camp; march off: as, the army decamped at six o'clock.
- In a general sense, to depart quickly, secretly, or unceremoniously; take one's self off; run away: as, he decamped suddenly.
- To camp.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To break up a camp; to move away from a camping ground, usually by night or secretly.
- v. Hence, to depart suddenly; to run away; -- generally used disparagingly.
WordNet 3.0
- v. leave suddenly
- v. run away; usually includes taking something or somebody along
- v. leave a camp
Etymologies
- French décamper, from Old French descamper, to strike camp : des-, de- + camper, to camp (from camp, camp; see camp1). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“They decamp from the nick and roaraway in a cloud of dust.”
“But late Friday protest leaders softened their stance, saying they would agree to decamp from the Thai capital's commercial center if Abhisit were to promise to dissolve parliament in 30 days.”
“Perhaps this explains Ford’s subsequent decision to decamp from the South in search of a more gullible electorate.”
“Alarmed at my strange situation, I now sought to decamp, meaning to wait for Lady Crewe up stairs: but to even approach the door was impossible.”
“After the dust settled and Ms. Fox returned to LA, or her suite at the Soho Grand, or wherever stars decamp these days, the boy's parents, hair stylists Revi and Valery Joseph, asked if anyone had documented their son's star turn.”
“Fresh off the heels of opening his second Bowery canteen, Peels, Mr. Somer plans to decamp to Brooklyn where he will whittle his own line of salvaged wood furniture.”
“The players have been forced to decamp while the historic building—with its sumptuous red velvet and gilded interior—is renovated.”
The Wall Street Journal: The Comédie-Française Pops Up in Paris
“He has also praised the Occupy movement and its message, while telling protesters they must decamp.”
The Wall Street Journal: L.A. Mayor Faces Test in Ouster of Occupy Protesters
“In January, the University of Pennsylvania's West Coast business campus will decamp from the Folger Building, once home to the namesake coffee company, to the top floor of the Hills Plaza building, former headquarters of the Hills Bros. coffee company.”
“It's no wonder that art fairs are sprouting up where many New York collectors decamp for the summer.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘decamp’.
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POL - presidential debates
Some of the catchwords of several presidential debates (Obama-Romney 2012 Denver debate's transcript fully included)
preexist, crosstalk, figure skate, preexisting, spending cut, preconceive, zinger, excruciate, ask over, miniaturize, food stamp, Medicare and 150 more...
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EN - eloquence in public speaking
Key words from "The Training of a Public Speaker" by Grenville Kleiser (New York and London, 1920)
beget, imago, Vespasian, languid, studied, judgment, dwindle, artifice, contribute, observe, sonorous, gladiator and 264 more...
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Pterodactyl's Game of Postal Abbrevia...
Here's a fun little word game that might appeal to my fellow Wordies. The object of this game is to create the longest possible word, using only the official two-letter abbreviations of U.S. states...
deny, lame, mope, demand, camp, cask, hind, decamp, canvas, scalar, mental, pronks and 75 more...
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Camp
I'll bring the bug spray and the waterproof matches.
camp, camping, camper, campylobacter, Jane Campion, campy, campesino, Camp David, campfire, camptown, scamp, Hello Muddah, Hel... and 88 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Learned
ambergris, andiron, aphelion, austral, bellicose, boreal, bravura, chaff, chicanery, creditable, credulous, decamp and 223 more...
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Faves
nepenthe, cupidity, anodyne, obdurate, doleful, obsolescent, quale, piquant, velleity, inchoate, disport, facile and 366 more...
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Mollusque's miscellany
A mixture of words that I like or have commented on, along with ones parked here so they'd be listed somewhere or remind me of lists I want to make.
oranger, monographer, preoccupied, bu, bobization, coinventor, tetrapyloctomy, borgmannian, suspercollate, manhug, mancrush, obituarist and 604 more...
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tomax's Words
legerdemain, yayo, extravasation, wont, faze, coxswain, concomitant, enclave, unguent, rhabdomyolysis, effluent, puerile and 432 more...
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rhii's words to remember and incorporate
Just whatever words I might happen across in my wanderings that I find myself compelled to write down so that I remember to try to use them. Not necessarily unusual words, but worthwhile ones.
redact, treatise, vitrify, cogitate, propensity, silphium, saccharine, minutiae, sluicing, dalliance, remonstrated, carnelian and 131 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, D
dodecahedron, din, diglyceride, dysphotopsia, decoction, deboss, diatonic, dithyramb, divagate, discalced, dishdasha, daft and 281 more...
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lanklenmot's Words
ineluctable, prelapsarian, bien pensant, prospero, preternatural, gratifying, iconoclast, cineast, persnickety, tumescent, galvanize, pap and 887 more...
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GRE Vocab II
apace, impetuous, abet, countenance, mainstay, munificent, bilious, dudgeon, pettish, querulous, waspish, neophyte and 113 more...
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conglomeration
wherewithal, wan, zoonotic, zoonosis, nebulous, nefarious, nascent, quiescent, quell, undercroft, unwitting, unutterable and 658 more...
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miscellanea
antimacassar, snootful, sessile, glagolitic, marrowsky, farrago, keel, calumny, rheum, talisman, tally, awry and 508 more...
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Words otherwise of note
palinode, discubation, apophasis, agathokakological, lachrymose, superfluous, gerund, serendipity, avuncular, onomatopoeia, chagrin, copacetic and 100 more...
Tweets
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