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food cache

food cache

1 4.5
A supply of food kept in a hidden or safe place for later use
  • noun
  • /fuːd kæʃ/
translation icon : almacen de comida
  • But please let me know where you are hiding your food cache... as a survivor who can't tell friends from enemies, you probably won't be around long enough to eat it all.

Examples

  • The hiker was thankful to find a food cache hidden in the forest, stocked with energy bars and dried fruit.

  • We suspect it's a weapons and food cache, maybe some documents.

  • The idea of a dirt-hole set, she said, was to make the wolf think he'd stumbled across some other animal's food cache.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • An extreme case of this food-cache strategy can be seen in animals (e.g., certain insects and frogs) that produce infertile trophic eggs to nourish their newborns.

    Academic text (1997)
  • During winter storms, I rely on our food cache to provide essential supplies.

  • In case of emergencies, the family maintains a food cache filled with canned goods and water.

Synonyms

stash
vsfood cache
  • Informal
134 4.3

A hidden store of money or things kept for later

is meant for provisions rather than valuable personal items
store
vsfood cache
113 1.0

A supply of things kept for future use

is specifically a hidden, secure reserve for emergency or later use
pantry
vsfood cache
76 1.0

A small room or cupboard in a house where people keep food and dishes

is a hidden reserve for emergencies rather than an everyday storage place
stockpile
vsfood cache
45 4.2

A large supply of goods kept for future use

is usually smaller and stored privately for a household or person
cache
vsfood cache
43 6.0

A secret store of things like money or food kept for future use

is specifically a provisions reserve kept hidden for future or emergency use
food supply
vsfood cache
36 2.0

The amount of food available to people in a place

is a private reserve kept hidden rather than an overall community supply
larder
vsfood cache
  • UK
3 6.6

A supply of food kept at home to use later

is kept hidden and intended for emergency or later needs rather than everyday use

How Much

stockpile
45 4.2
food cache
1 4.5
pantry
76 1.0
stash of booze
  • Informal
7.9
ration
106 4.2

Surface Forms

food cache singular
food caches plural

Morphology

food + cache

The noun phrase combines 'food' (edible supplies) with 'cache' (a stored/hidden supply), so its meaning — a stored supply of food — is directly and compositionally derivable from the parts. This straightforward noun+noun compounding is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily understand it.

Etymology

Food cache comes from the simple picture of hiding food: people or animals put food into a safe hiding place, a cache, like a buried box or a hole in a tree. So food cache now means a store of food kept in a 'hidden place' for later or in an emergency.