canteen, noun

Forms:
Also cantine.
Origin:
EnglishShow more Special sense of general English canteen a shop in a military camp or garrison town which sells provisions and liquor to the soldiers.
obs. except in historical contexts
a. A liquor shop; a public house. Also attributive.
1809 Earl of Caledon in G.M. Theal Rec. of Cape Col. (1900) VI. 490I venture to recommend that a salary of 1,000 Rix Drs. pr. annum should be attached to his (sc. the Town Major’s) Office;..this..being the salary which was attached to the Superintendance of Canteens, an appointment formerly held by that of Town Major.
1828 G. Barker Journal. 6 MayAttended the court against a Canteen man, or retailer of Spiritous liquors, for retailing spirits contrary to Law and illicit traffic.
1835 G. Champion Jrnl (1968) 19Now & then companies pass by apparently just from the canteen (grog shop)..singing & shouting, cursing & swearing.
1846 Natal Witness 10 Apr.Can D’Urban continue to exist with its present number of canteens, — and how many have died within the last three months of delirium tremens?
1852 C. Barter Dorp & Veld 9 (Pettman)The inns sadly need reformation — they are in fact little better than canteens.
1862 Lady Duff-Gordon in F. Galton Vacation Tourists (1864) III. 155The so-called Hottentots are earning 2s. 6d. a day, with rations and wine. But all the money goes to the ‘canteen’ in drink.
1872 C.A. Payton Diamond Diggings 130Small establishments for the retailing of liquors, not giving board and lodging, are called ‘canteens,’ and they are legion; for any man with fifty pounds in his pocket can start a canteen, if only on a very small scale.
1897 J.P. Fitzpatrick Outspan 188The canvas canteens were crowded, and the bare spaces around them were strewn with empty bottles and victims of injudicious zeal.
1910 E. Prov. Herald 16 Apr.The report of the Transvaal Liquor Commission which will shortly be laid before Parliament recommends the establishment of Government Canteens for the sale of kaffir beer to natives.
1918 Cape Argus in J. Crwys-Williams S. Afr. Despatches (1989) 221Representatives of the local licensed victuallers,..in the interest of combating the epidemic, consented to close all bars, canteens and bottle stores for the supply of liquor..until November 1.
1952 H. Klein Land of Silver Mist 122A camp was established. Corrugated iron buildings sprang up. Canteens and gambling dens dotted the veld.
1962 A.P. Cartwright Gold Miners 55He..had shared drinks with Harrison and Walker in Koos Malan’s primitive canteen.
1962 A.P. Cartwright Gold Miners 76There were the same heavily loaded wagons pulled by teams of gaunt oxen,..the same canteens set up in tents to sell Cape brandy and Nellmapius’s ‘Hatherley’ gin.
1983 Sunday Times 4 Sept. (Mag. Sect.) 22By 1895 there were 1 000 canteens between Krugersdorp and Nigel. Drunkenness was common and led to murders, faction fights and deaths from alcoholic poisoning.
b. combinations
canteen-keeper, the proprietor of a public house ;
canteen-keeping verbal noun, also attributive .
1832 Graham’s Town Jrnl 13 Jan. 11I contend that a Canteen keeper can be as respectable a man, and as useful a member of Society as the ‘True African’.
1843 Cape of G.H. Almanac & Annual RegisterJolly, John, canteenkeeper, east-barracks.
1878 T.J. Lucas Camp Life & Sport 126The canteen-keeper, who was the chief drain upon the pocket of the diamond seeker.
1933 W. Macdonald Romance of Golden Rand 123It was soon found that the canteen keepers were bribing the natives, and giving them liquor for diamonds.
1955 V. De Kock Fun They Had 153A Jew canteen-keeper, who had picked up his riding..in the United States army.
1972 Grocott’s Mail 1 Feb. 3He became Grahamstown’s first canteen-keeper when he opened his canteen or ‘grog shop’ (as canteens and bars were sometimes called) at his house on erf No. 24.
1833 Graham’s Town Jrnl 21 Mar. 2Stamps us as one of the most Brandy-loving, canteen-keeping people in existence.
A liquor shop; a public house. Also attributive.
, the proprietor of a public house
, also attributive
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18091983

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Cango, nounn.Capab, nounn.
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