Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A boat or small chest equipped with supplies for a lumber camp.
  • noun Provisions for a camp or cabin.
  • noun A small house, bunkhouse, or shed mounted on skids and towed behind a tractor train as eating and sleeping quarters for a work crew.
  • noun An addition built onto a trailer house for extra living or storage space.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as wangan.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Ojibwa waanikaan, storage pit.]

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Examples

  • The cook had, early that morning, moored the wanigan to the bank.

    The Blazed Trail Stewart Edward White 1909

  • Camp did not mind rain or cold -- he would cheerfully cook away with the water dripping from his battered derby to his chubby and cold-purpled nose -- but he did mind the wanigan.

    The Blazed Trail Stewart Edward White 1909

  • Billy Camp began to worry about shooting the wanigan through the sluice-way.

    The Blazed Trail Stewart Edward White 1909

  • Outside, the cook and cookee were stowing articles in the already loaded wanigan.

    The Blazed Trail Stewart Edward White 1909

  • When night came the men rode down stream to where the wanigan had made camp.

    The Blazed Trail Stewart Edward White 1909

  • Billy Camp tried to keep back of the rear in clear water, but when the wanigan so disposed, he found himself jammed close in the logs.

    The Blazed Trail Stewart Edward White 1909

  • "Ordinarily on drive we have a wanigan," said Welton.

    The Rules of the Game Stewart Edward White 1909

  • When at last the wanigan was moored fast for the night, -- usually a mile or so below the spot planned, -- Billy Camp pushed back his battered old brown derby hat, the badge of his office, with

    The Blazed Trail Stewart Edward White 1909

  • The tribulations of the wanigan were as the salt of life to the spectators.

    The Blazed Trail Stewart Edward White 1909

  • Outside, the cook and cookee were stowing articles in the already loaded wanigan.

    The Blazed Trail 1902

Comments

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  • pay office in a lumber camp.

    February 5, 2008

  • The lumberjack loved his new mannequin

    And, oh, what a noisy shenanigan!

    The ecstatic cries

    And heartbreaking sighs

    That shivered the walls of his wanigan!

    April 26, 2018