Meaning of billycan | Babel Free

Definitions

A lightweight pot for cooking or boiling water, used in camping.

Australia, South-Africa, UK

Equivalents

Examples

“The filling of the billycan, cutting the supports to hang it over the fire, was a public show, but many times he would do this anyway to entertain himself. He unpacked the billycan from his old rucksack and I got out the tea and sugar. He filled the billy, then used his penknife to cut sticks to hang it over the fire.”

“Galloping a hundred yards, then jumping off and remounting an excited horse while holding a full billycan of water and beating everyone back over the starting line without spilling it sounded easy – until you tried. Billycans were lost, dropped, trampled underfoot.”

“2010, Nontsomi Langa, A Xhosa Story: Mbengu-Sonyanganzu, in Harold Scheub, The Uncoiling Python: South African Storytellers and Resistance, page 162, When they reached the river, Nqunuse's daughter's billycan began to leak.”

“A good billycan was one that had seen many fires, and was pitch black.”

CEFR level