bare navy

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English[edit]

Noun[edit]

bare navy (uncountable)

  1. (UK, naval slang) The situation where available food is limited to basic service rations.
    • 1914, Leslie Cope Cornford, Echoes from the Fleet, page 62:
      "Three weeks we had been at sea on bare Navy, when we dropped anchor off Porthaven," said Long Jim. "Bare Navy, you understand, is regulation rations and nothing else, the canteen having run dry; […]
    • 1946, Edwin Radford, Unusual Words and how They Came About, page 15:
      A tragic memory of Edwardian times, when butter or even margarine was a luxury in the Navy. Living on bare Navy symbolized having to exist on the coarse fare supplied by the Service.
    • 1959, Reginald Hargreaves, The Narrow Seas, page 296:
      Far too often, indeed, it was a case of 'bare Navy', the maritime equivalent to the soldier's 'hard-tack'; […]
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