food hamper
- noun
- /fuːd ˈhæmpər/
- UK
:
cesta de comida
- He surprised his friend with a food hamper containing all her favorite treats for her birthday.
Examples
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For their anniversary, she prepared a beautiful food hamper filled with gourmet snacks and wines.
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We have always served food to the homeless every week, given clothes to the needy, given food hampers to those who struggle to get food, we have had a CAP center for 6 or so years, and given thousands of presents to the poorest families in our cities for 10 years.
Blog text (33) -
They packed a food hamper with sandwiches, fruits, and drinks for their day at the beach.
Synonyms
288
1.0
A container made by weaving thin pieces of material with handles for carrying things
31
1.9
A large basket with a lid used to carry or store clothes
A box of local food often given as a gift or taken to a picnic
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a basket or box for packing food' is directly and literally composed from 'food' (items to eat) + 'hamper' (a basket/container), so the overall sense is fully derivable from its parts. This noun–noun composition is common cross-linguistically (cf. 'food basket', 'gift hamper') and contextual cues resolve minor polysemy of 'hamper', making it clear to a B1 learner who knows both words.
Etymology
The phrase food hamper comes from the old practice of filling a big woven hamper with food for a picnic or to give as a present. Because of that picture, food hamper means 'a box or basket of food, often given as a gift'.