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camp meeting

camp meeting

1 7.0
A religious gathering that takes place outdoors or in tents for several days
  • noun
  • /kæmp ˈmiːtɪŋ/
  • Archaic
translation icon : reunión de campamento
  • Every summer, our community hosts a week-long camp meeting where families gather for spiritual renewal.
  • camp meeting revivals
  • religious camp meeting

Examples

  • Ours was a small, obscure camp meeting.

    Academic text (1999)
  • When I was a boy, there was a camp meeting in my town.

    Academic text (1999)
  • Uh, we have a camp meeting in five minutes.

  • You ever been to a camp meeting?

  • We have been asked to sing in Smith Island at their annual camp meeting for the last four years.

    Blog text (22)
  • At the camp meetings, Harry spoke mostly to friends.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • This is my 10th Pentecostal camp meeting.

  • By the end of a camp meeting, there were typically numerous people who pronounced themselves "saved" or "reborn."

    Academic text (2006)
  • As a reporter for the Tribune, he covered mainly religious camp meetings in and around.

    Academic text (1991)
  • Andrew preferred camp meetings in the country, addressing honest, hard-working folks with their simple hand-stitched clothes and coal-oil lamps, to these market-day affairs.

    Fiction book (1996)

Synonyms

prayer meeting
vscamp meeting
7 2.8

A time when people gather to pray and sing together often in a church

is held outdoors in tents and runs for several days
revival meeting
vscamp meeting
3 7.4

A meeting to renew people's faith with strong preaching and singing

is held outdoors in tents and continues for several days

How Long

convention
3.4
camp meeting
  • Archaic
1 7.0
conference
  • Formal
3.0
meeting
1.0

Surface Forms

camp meeting singular
camp meetings plural

Morphology

camp + meeting

The headwords 'camp' (temporary site) and 'meeting' (people convening) transparently yield the basic idea of a meeting held at a camp, so a B1 learner who knows both words would likely infer location and gathering. However, the specialized sense—an often multi-day, evangelical religious event—is culturally specific and not fully predictable from the constituents, making some aspects unclear without prior exposure.

Etymology

Camp meeting comes from gatherings in the 1800s when people set up camp—tents and wagons—and met for several days to hear preachers and sing. So, it now means 'a large outdoor or tent-based religious meeting that lasts several days'.