concentration camp

concentration camp
   a place for arbitrary imprisonment of political and other opponents
   They were originally the areas in which civilians were concentrated by the Spanish in Cuba and the British in South Africa to prevent the feeding and hiding of men engaged in fighting against them. The Nazis adopted the tactic and the terminology — Konzentrationslager. Their prisons, which started as places for extortion, ransom, and humiliation, became depots for slave labour and genocide:
    There are not only prisons now, there are concentration camps. (Manning, 1962, writing of the Second World War)
   Sometimes abbreviated to camp:
    ... three-fifths of [Polish Jews] had disappeared into camps that used the new scientific methods... They had an official name... Vernitchtungslager, extermination camp. (Keneally, 1982)

How not to say what you mean: A dictionary of euphemisms. . 2014.

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  • concentration camp — 1901, compound for noncombatants in a war zone (see CONCENTRATION (Cf. concentration)); a controversial idea from the second Boer War (1899 1902), and the term emerged with a bad odor. In ref. to prisons for dissidents and minorities in Nazi… …   Etymology dictionary

  • concentration camp — concentration camps N COUNT A concentration camp is a prison in which large numbers of ordinary people are kept in very bad conditions, usually during a war …   English dictionary

  • concentration camp — ► NOUN ▪ a camp for detaining political prisoners, especially in Nazi Germany …   English terms dictionary

  • concentration camp — n. a prison camp in which political dissidents, members of minority ethnic groups, etc. are confined …   English World dictionary

  • concentration camp — noun 1. a penal camp where political prisoners or prisoners of war are confined (usually under harsh conditions) (Freq. 7) • Syn: ↑stockade • Hypernyms: ↑camp • Hyponyms: ↑death camp • I …   Useful english dictionary

  • concentration camp — UK / US noun [countable] Word forms concentration camp : singular concentration camp plural concentration camps a place like a prison where ordinary people are kept during a war and where they have to live in very unpleasant conditions …   English dictionary

  • concentration camp — a guarded compound for the detention or imprisonment of aliens, members of ethnic minorities, political opponents, etc., esp. any of the camps established by the Nazis prior to and during World War II for the confinement and persecution of… …   Universalium

  • concentration camp — Synonyms and related words: Belsen, Konzentrationslager, Lager, POW camp, abattoir, aceldama, barrack, barracks, bastille, bivouac, black hole, borstal, borstal institution, bridewell, brig, butchery, camp, campground, campsite, cantonment,… …   Moby Thesaurus

  • concentration camp — noun a) A camp where large numbers of persons mdash;such as political prisoners, prisoners of war, refugees mdash;are detained for the purpose of concentrating them in one place. b) A camp or premises in which persons considered to be undesirable …   Wiktionary

  • concentration camp — noun Date: 1901 a camp where persons (as prisoners of war, political prisoners, or refugees) are detained or confined …   New Collegiate Dictionary

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