What does "k-ration" mean?

An individual daily combat food ration introduced by the United States Army during World War II and comprising three courses for breakfast, lunch and supper.

What is a synonym for "k-ration"?

Common synonyms include: k-rat, keys ration.

K-ration

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
An individual daily combat food ration introduced by the United States Army during World War II and comprising three courses for breakfast, lunch and supper.
"The K ration is packed in three separate boxes containing breakfast, dinner, and supper. It contains two kinds of biscuit, canned meats, coffee tablets, concentrated bouillon, lemon juice powder, chocolate bar and chewing gum."

Synonyms

All synonyms

k-rat keys ration

Example

More examples

"The K ration is packed in three separate boxes containing breakfast, dinner, and supper. It contains two kinds of biscuit, canned meats, coffee tablets, concentrated bouillon, lemon juice powder, chocolate bar and chewing gum."

Etymology

Coined by the United States War Department in or about 1942, from K + ration. The letter K is arbitrary, chosen to distinguish the name from earlier C ration and D ration.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.