A Nissen hut is a military hut made of metal. The walls and roof form the shape of a semi-circle.
[British]regional note: in AM, use Quonset hut
Nissen hut in British English
(ˈnɪsən)
noun
a military shelter of semicircular cross section, made of corrugated steel sheet
US and Canadian equivalent: Quonset hut
Word origin
C20: named after Lt Col. Peter Nissen (1871–1930), British mining engineer, its inventor
Nissen hut in American English
(ˈnɪsən)
a prefabricated shelter of corrugated metal shaped like a cylinder cut vertically in two and resting on its flat surface: first used by the Brit. Army in WWI
Word origin
after P. N. Nissen (1871-1930), engineer in the Cdn army
Examples of 'Nissen hut' in a sentence
Nissen hut
One side of the cul-de-sac was a two-storey office building and behind it a low Nissen hut with a walled yard.
Robert Wilson INSTRUMENTS OF DARKNESS (2002)
It spun me round and sent me back through the gate and I hit the Nissen hut face first.