backpack

/ˌbækˈpæk/

/ˈbækpæk/

Other forms: backpacks; backpacking; backpacked

A backpack is a bag you wear on your back, with straps over your shoulders. Lots of kids carry their books to school in a backpack.

A hiker might carry a heavy backpack for miles, with food and a folded tent inside, while a kindergartner's backpack will be much smaller, and may have a cartoon character on it. You can also call this portable kind of bag a rucksack. If you hike with a backpack, you go backpacking, and you can call yourself a backpacker. The word's been around since the earliest 20th century.

Definitions of backpack

1. noun

   a bag carried by a strap on your back or shoulder
   synonyms: back pack, haversack, knapsack, packsack, rucksack

   types:

   kit bag, kitbag

   a knapsack (usually for a soldier)

   type of:

   bag

   a flexible container with a single opening
2. verb

   hike with a backpack
   “Every summer they are backpacking in the Rockies”

   synonyms: pack

   type of:

   hike

   walk a long way, as for pleasure or physical exercise