▪ I. bivvy, bivy Army slang.
(ˈbɪvɪ)
[Shortened f. bivouac n.]
A temporary shelter for troops; a small tent.
| 1916 Anzac Book 142 We lays down in the open W'en our ‘bivvies’ isn't dug. 1918 N.Z.E.F. Chrons. 13 Feb. 9/1 We arrived at our allotted spot, somewhere in Palestine, and erected our bivvies. 1920 Blackw. Mag. May 596/2 The Egyptian Camel Corps and Gurkhas arrived, bringing ‘Bivies’ and other luxuries. Ibid. 606/1 Tying his horse to my bivy-pole. 1925 Glasgow Herald 30 Mar. 10 That word was ‘tambu’, meaning a rough and ready shelter made of branches, planks, corrugated iron, a ‘bivvy’, in fact. 1947 D. M. Davin Gorse blooms Pale 199 Snow and me were sitting outside the bivvy. |
▸ Mountaineering slang. A night spent in the open air without a tent; an open air encampment. Cf. bivouac n. 2, bivvy v. 1.
| 1961 Webster's New Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang. Bivvy, n. or vb., slang: bivouac. [Bivouac n...1b an encampment under little or no shelter... 2 a camping out for the night.] 1982 Backpacker Dec.–Jan. 49/1 It then took me half an hour to arrange my gear in the three-foot-deep bivy hole I'd dug. 1990 Mountain July–Aug. 24/2 It's hard to describe that bivvi: a tedious fight with the night, cold, loneliness. 2003 Amer. Alpine Jrnl. 45 18 This was the real stuff, one of the typical miserable alpine bivvies that you read about in the American Alpine Journal. |
▸ bivvy bag n. Mountaineering slang = bivouac bag n. at bivouac n. Additions.
| 1982 Daily Tel. 5 Feb. 15/6 Caught alfresco in the Himalayas, she will sleep in a ‘*bivvi bag’. 2002 J. Simpson Beckoning Silence (2003) xiii. 203, I ran quickly through a tick list of the items I had packed in my rucksack. Stove, gas cylinders.., bivi bag, camcorder, spare batteries and film, contact lens case. |
▸ bivvy sack n. (also bivvy sak) Mountaineering slang = bivouac bag n. at bivouac n. Additions.
| 1977 Backpacker Dec. 52/2 (advt.) Bomb proof super *bivvy sak with Gore-Tex laminate... It's the perfect answer for back-packers, climbers, canoeists and general campers who want more than sleeping bag protection without carrying a tent. 2005 Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News (Nexis) 24 July g1 It probably helped that we used the deflated packrafts, the PFDs and our packs for insulation beneath our bivvy sacks. |
▪ II. bivvy, v. slang (orig. Mil.).
Brit. /ˈbɪvi/, U.S. /ˈbɪvi/
Forms: 19– bivvy, 19– bivy
[‹ bivvy n. Compare earlier bivouac v.]
1. intr. To spend the night in the open air without a tent (esp. in a bivvy bag); to camp with little or no shelter. Occas. with down, out.
| 1943 P. W. Rainier Pipeline to Battle iii. i. 164 That night..the French Foreign Legion..bivvied down just outside the fence. 1982 Backpacker Dec.–Jan. 51/1 We skied down through wind and ice crust, and when the avalanche danger became too great bivied at the top of a cliffband as another storm moved in. 1995 On the Edge Aug. 62/2 Whatever your reason to bivvy, be it intended or otherwise, there are innumerable ways to make yourself as comfortable as possible given the amount of equipment available. 2003 J. Grigg What Next? xiv. 160 We also bivvied out, which was fun but weird as we experienced 24 hour daylight! |
2. intr. Angling. With up. To use a small tent for shelter whilst fishing, esp. for several days.
| 1992 Angling Times 22 Apr. 3/1 On his first visit to the day-ticket fishery Richard Watts opted to bivvy-up on Orchid lake for his two-day session. 1995 Carpworld July 136/1, I am seriously considering never bivvying up on this lake again. 2003 S. Wales Evening Post (Nexis) 4 Sept. 57 Both the pleasure lake and the central lake have been very busy this week, with quite a few junior anglers bivvying up around the lakes. |
Derivatives. bivvying n.
| 1991 M. Gray First Fifty (BNC) 58 Maybe they're top mountaineers training for a Himalyan expedition that requires constant overnight *bivvying on icy rock faces. 1995 On the Edge Aug. 66/2 Most people who are going to take bivvying seriously will need a good bivvy bag. |