kitchen police

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kitchen police

n. Abbr. KP

1. Enlisted military personnel assigned to work in a kitchen.

2. Military duty assisting cooks.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

kitchen police

pl n

(Military) US soldiers who have been detailed to work in the kitchen, esp as a punishment. Abbreviation: KP

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

KP

(ˈkeɪˈpi)
n., pl. KPs, KP's for 5.

1. military duty as a kitchen helper: assigned to KP.

2. a soldier detailed to work as kitchen help.

[1915–20, Amer.; k(itchen) p(olice)]

K.P.

1. Knight of the Order of St. Patrick.

2. Knights of Pythias.

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Noun

kitchen police - an enlisted person who is assigned to assist the cooks

enlisted person - a serviceman who ranks below a commissioned officer

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References in periodicals archive ?

In that long-ago time, part of the life of a soldier was taking one's turn at KP (kitchen police).

Soap triggered memories of home

It was a battalion only in name, for it could muster barely 200 men in ranks when every available man, including cooks, clerks and kitchen police, [was] present for the little field training that could be accomplished with available funds.

After the Trenches: The Transformation of U.S. Army Doctrine, 1918-1939

"In the kitchen police found no cooking utensils, nothing to prepare food with," Becker said.