post exchange

American

noun

U.S. Army.

a retail store on an army installation that sells goods and services to military personnel and their dependents and to certain authorized civilian personnel. PX

post exchange British

noun

PX. a government-subsidized shop operated mainly for military personnel

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of post exchange

First recorded in 1890–95

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

They ate at American fast-food restaurants and bought electronics, T-shirts and groceries at a vast post exchange.

From New York Times

“If there’s one small change, even if there’s something new at the PX, people talk about it,” she said, referring to the post exchange.

From Seattle Times

The Army says there is no danger to anyone else on the post outside Colorado Springs, but access to the post exchange was restricted as a precaution.

From Washington Times

Years of nongrowing, from being a seventeen-year-old, smooth-faced idealist hunched over a book in his Harlem apartment, to becoming a smooth-faced veteran of twenty hunched over a beer in a post exchange.

From Literature

The U.S. military operated a PX — or Army post exchange, a retail outlet for soldiers — in the Ginza area of Tokyo.

From Washington Post

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023