Quonset hut

American

[kwon-sit] / ˈkwɒn sɪt /

Trademark.

a semicylindrical metal shelter having end walls, usually serving as a barracks, storage shed, or the like, developed for the U.S. military forces from the British Nissen hut at Quonset Naval Base in Rhode Island.

Quonset hut British

/ ˈkwɒnsɪt /

noun

Brit equivalent: Nissen hut. a military shelter made of corrugated steel sheet, having a semicircular cross section

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The Quonset hut, now painted vivid green, never was truly a museum and is currently used as convenient storage for the cafe, though on the outside, it still dresses the part.

From Seattle Times • May 6, 2024

Tom, who refers to himself as “The Surf God” and eschews Mindy’s bourgeois crowd as “kooks,” convinces Ginger to camp in his sand-bound Quonset hut and steal food for him as he pursues dead-end schemes.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 3, 2023

At the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, there are approximately 76,000 containers of ethanol specimens, mostly stored in a World War-II-era Quonset hut, which is made from corrugated steel and is uninsulated.

From Salon • Jul. 7, 2023

I remember standing in the back of the Quonset hut that was the Masters press building and seeing Dan pause from his typewriter and slowly look around the room.

From Golf Digest • Apr. 6, 2020

We walked around the Quonset hut, through the rows of adult trees, and out to the baby trees—the Golden Dawn tangerines.

From "Tangerine" by Edward Bloor

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023