English

Noun

billycan ‎(plural billycans)

1. (Britain, Australia, South Africa) a lightweight pot for cooking or boiling water, used in camping.
   • 1997, Ian Player, Zulu Wilderness: Shadow and Soul, page 69,

     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.

   • 2010, Kerry McGinnis, Wildhorse Creek, unnumbered page,

     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, 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.

   • 2011, Colin Graham Smith, Shadows of War, page 43,

     A good billycan was one that had seen many fires, and was pitch black.

Translations

References

• Swinging the Billycan: Making Tea in the Australian Bush, 2003-01-22, accessed 2007-02-16
• Bushwalking.org: How to use billycans