ration card
3
4.0
- noun
- /ˈræʃən kɑrd/
:
tarjeta de racionamiento
- I still have some of my mother's WWII ration card books—issued by the federal government for things like shoes, sugar, molasses, gasoline, and tires.
- food ration card
Examples
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You need to present your ration card at the store to buy essential groceries during the shortage.
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Please make sure ration cards are stamped...
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That's what we get on our ration cards.
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I'll get you some ration cards too; you can't buy matches or soap on this island without a card.
Fiction book (2000) -
She successively asks for rice, sugar, tea, and flour, only to be told that there is nothing unless she can produce a ration card (which allegedly was available only to Allende supporters).
Academic text (1992) -
During the crisis, many families relied on their ration cards to secure food and fuel from local suppliers.
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The government distributed ration cards to ensure that everyone had access to basic necessities during the emergency.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly and transparently derived from 'ration' (an officially allotted portion) plus 'card' (a small identity/payment item): it denotes a card used to claim or prove entitlement to rations. This simple noun–noun composition follows common lexical patterns and is cross-linguistically recognizable, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the meaning.
Etymology
Ration card comes from times of war and shortage, when governments gave each family a small paper card with stamps showing how much ration of food or fuel they could take. So the card proved a family's right 'to buy' those limited goods, and today a ration card still means an official card for buying rationed items.