Dictionary

billycan en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Etymology

From billy + can.

Meanings

1. (Australia, South-Africa, UK) A lightweight pot for cooking or boiling water, used in camping.
   • 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.
   • 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. 1997, Ian Player, Zulu Wilderness: Shadow and Soul, page 69:
   • 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, Kerry McGinnis, Wildhorse Creek, unnumbered page:
   • A good billycan was one that had seen many fires, and was pitch black. 2011, Colin Graham Smith, Shadows of War, page 43:

Forms

Synonyms

billypot · billy tin · billy

Translations (6)

xh ibhekile (lightweight pot) · rop biliken (lightweight pot) · mi kēna (lightweight pot) · it gamella (lightweight pot) · fr gamelle (lightweight pot) · wyi tarnuk (lightweight pot)