Wiktionary

ration

See also: Ration

English

edit
English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

edit

From French ration. Doublet of reason and ratio.

Pronunciation

edit
  • enPR: răshʹən, IPA(key): /ˈɹæʃən/
    • Audio (US):(file)
    • Rhymes: -æʃən

Noun

edit

ration (plural rations)

  1. A portion of some limited resource, especially food, allocated to a person, group or period.
    Jack gathered his meager ration of food.
    The town's ration of gasoline had to go to necessary vehicles.
    Betty had divided up her cigarettes to last all month, and her ration for today was only three.
    • 1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:
      The corn ration was drastically reduced, and it was announced that an extra potato ration would be issued to make up for it.

Derived terms

edit

Translations

edit

Verb

edit

ration (third-person singular simple present rations, present participle rationing, simple past and past participle rationed)

  1. (transitive) To supply with a ration; to limit (someone) to a specific allowance of something.
    We rationed ourselves to three sips of water a day until we were rescued.
  2. (transitive) To portion out (especially during a shortage of supply); to limit access to.
    By the third day on the raft, we had to ration our water.
    • 2019 November 21, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian‎[2], archived from the original on 6 April 2020:
      But as our urban lives have grown more pressed for time, we have diced our opportunity costs finer and finer; from budgeting days or slabs of hours, we have come to rationing minutes.
  3. (transitive) To restrict (an activity etc.)
    I've rationed myself to one cup of coffee a day.
    Our present health care system is rationed only to those who can afford it because of unnecessary high cost, lack of insurance coverage by 47 million people, and exorbitant prescription prices.
    • 1986 December 21, F. Jay Deacon, “Emotionally-Laden Prejudice”, in Gay Community News, volume 14, number 23, page 4:
      A theocratic state in which an equation is drawn between the Catholic hierarchy and God and the rights of citizens may be rationed by the church according to its doctrines.

Synonyms

edit

Derived terms

edit

Translations

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ Ross, Alan S. C. (1970), “ration”, in How to pronounce it‎[1], London: Hamish Hamilton, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 148.

Anagrams

edit

French

edit

Etymology

edit

    Learned borrowing from Latin ratiō. Doublet of raison, which was inherited.

    Pronunciation

    edit

    Noun

    edit

    ration f (plural rations)

    1. ration

    Derived terms

    edit

    Descendants

    edit
    • → Dutch: rantsoen (see there for further descendants)
    • → English: ration

    Further reading

    edit

    Anagrams

    edit

    Interlingua

    edit

    Noun

    edit

    ration (plural rationes)

    1. ratio, proportion
    Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=ration&oldid=91982385"