dossbag
British slang for a sleeping bag — the kind you'd unroll at a festival, a camping trip, or a mate's floor when you've missed the last train home.
Definitions
British slang for a sleeping bag — the kind you'd unroll at a festival, a camping trip, or a mate's floor when you've missed the last train home. 'Doss' is a long-standing British word for a rough or makeshift sleep, and dossbag combines that perfectly with the practicality of the item itself. It has a distinctly no-frills, down-to-earth feel — nobody who calls it a dossbag is sleeping in a luxury glamping setup. It's for those who sleep wherever and however they can.
He grabbed his dossbag from the car boot and found a spot in the corner of the tent.
Comments
(slang) A sleeping bag.
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Semantically related
- doss out81%
British slang meaning to sleep rough or bed down outside, typically used in the context of homelessness, camping out without gear, or crashing somewhere improvised in the open air. It extends the broader doss vocabulary — doss means to sleep or crash somewhere casual — with the out specifying an outdoor location. Often used without judgment, describing a practical situation rather than a moral one.
- doss78%
(intransitive, British, AU, slang) To sleep, especially in the open or in a makeshift bed, commonly in a derelict building because one is homeless.
- doss down74%
(British, slang) To sleep on someone's sofa or floor because there is no bed spare.
- dossing-ken70%
Obsolete British slang for a cheap lodging house or dosshouse, combining 'dossing' (sleeping or lodging cheaply) with 'ken' (thieves' cant for a house or dwelling). The term belongs to the vocabulary of 19th-century street life and vagabond culture. It is now entirely historical.