Word.ws English Dictionary

barrel

Syllables: bar·relUK/ˈbæɹ(ə)l//ˈbæɹəl/

barrel noun: a round (cylindrical) vessel, such as a cask, of greater length than breadth, and bulging in the middle, made of staves bound with hoops, and having flat ends (heads). The word is sometimes applied to a similar cylindrical container made of metal, usually called a drum.

barrel: a round (cylindrical) vessel, such as a cask, of greater length than breadth, and bulging in the...
Image: C. G. P. Grey, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

barrel (plural barrels)

  1. (countable) A round (cylindrical) vessel, such as a cask, of greater length than breadth, and bulging in the middle, made of staves bound with hoops, and having flat ends (heads). The word is sometimes applied to a similar cylindrical container made of metal, usually called a drum.
    • Near-synonym: cask
    • a cracker barrel
    Synonyms:
    bbl, cask
    1. (countable) Such a cask of a certain size, holding one-eighth of what a tun holds. (See a diagram comparing cask sizes.)
      • Barrels came in firkins, nine gallons; kilderkins, eighteen gallons; halves, twenty-seven gallons; barrels, thirty-six gallons and hogsheads, fifty-four.1987, Keith Dunstan, The Amber Nectar, Ringwood: Vicking O'Neil, page 81
  2. The quantity which constitutes a full barrel: the volume or weight this represents varies by local law and custom.
    • Again, by 28 Hen. VIII, cap. 14, it is re-enacted that the tun of wine should contain 252 gallons, a butt of Malmsey 126 gallons, a pipe 126 gallons, a tercian or puncheon 84 gallons, a hogshead 63 gallons, a tierce 41 gallons, a barrel 31.5 gallons, a rundlet 18.5 gallons.1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 205
    • 23 Hen. VIII, cap. 4... The barrel of beer is to hold 36 gallons, the kilderkin 18 gallons the firkin 9. But the barrel, kilderkin, and firkin of ale are to contain 32, 16, and 8 gallons.1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, volume 4, page 205
  3. A solid drum, or a hollow cylinder or case
    • the barrel of a windlass; the barrel of a watch, within which the spring is coiled.
  4. A metallic tube, as of a gun, from which a projectile is discharged.
    • You're shooting stars from the barrel of your eyes2010, “Beauty School”, in Chino Moreno (lyrics), Diamond Eyes, performed by Deftones
  5. A venturi (in carburetion).
    Synonyms:
    bbl, v
  6. A ceiling-mounted tube from which lights are suspended.
    • Moreover, it adds to difficulties in adjusting/servicing lamps located over high scenery, ceilings etc., where the barrel networks cannot be lowered or reached.2013, Gerald Millerson, Lighting for TV and Film, page 325
    • The barrel, which is usually from 2.0 m to 2.5 m long, and capable of lifting loads up to 120 kg, is suspended from the main housing which contains the motor gearbox unit, etc.2013, Brian Fitt, Joe Thornley, Lighting Technology, page 118
  7. (archaic) Any tube.
  8. The hollow basal part of a feather.
  9. The part of a clarinet which connects the mouthpiece and upper joint, and resembles a barrel.
  10. A wave that breaks with a hollow compartment.
  11. (New-England, US, specifically) A waste receptacle.
    • Throw it into the trash barrel.
  12. The ribs and belly of a horse or pony.
Show 3 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (obsolete) A jar.
    • And ſhe ſaid, As the Lord thy God liueth, I haue not a cake, but an handfull of meale in a barrell, and a little oyle in a cruſe: [...]1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Kings 17:12, column 2
  2. Any of the dark-staining regions in the somatosensory cortex of rodents, etc., where somatosensory inputs from the contralateral side of the body come in from the thalamus.
  3. A statistic derived from launch angle and exit velocity of a ball hit in play.
    • For quotations using this term, see Citations:barrel.

Verb

barrel (third-person singular simple present barrels, present participle (US) barreling or (UK) barrelling, simple past and past participle (US) barreled or (UK) barrelled)

  1. (transitive) To put or to pack in a barrel or barrels.
  2. (intransitive) To move quickly or in an uncontrolled manner.
    • He came barrelling around the corner and I almost hit him.
    • Snow shattered and spilled down the slope. Within seconds, the avalanche was the size of more than a thousand cars barreling down the mountain and weighed millions of pounds.2012, John Branch, “Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek”, in New York Times
  3. (intransitive) To assume the shape of a barrel; specifically, of the image on a computer display, television, etc., to exhibit barrel distortion, where the sides bulge outwards.
  4. (slang) To bet consecutively on multiple streets.

barrel meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

barrel in Hindi

round vessel made from staves bound with a hoop
पीपा pīpā
quantity
बैरल bairal

barrel in Tamil

பீப்பாய், மிடா, உருள்தொட்டி, இயந்திரங்களின் சுழல் உருளை, மிடா அளவு, குதிரை இடுப்புப் பகுதி

barrel in Urdu

round vessel made from staves bound with a hoop
پیپا pīpā

barrel in Bengali

round vessel made from staves bound with a hoop
পিপা pipa
More languagesFewer languages
barrel in Telugu
కొడుపు koḍupu, గొట్టము goṭṭamu
barrel in Malayalam
വീപ്പ, തോക്കിൻകുഴ
barrel in Kannada
ಪೀಪಾಯಿ pīpāyi
barrel in Punjabi
ਨਾਲ਼ੀ nāḷī
barrel in Sanskrit
कवन्ध kavandha
barrel in Arabic
بِرْمِيل birmīl, مَاسُورَة māsūra, سَبَطَانَة sabaṭāna
barrel in Malay
tong, laras
barrel in Indonesian
tong, barel, laras bedil
barrel in Persian
بُشکِه boške, پیپ pīp, تنکه tonke, بشکه boške
barrel in Thai
ถัง tǎng, บาร์เรล, ลำกล้อง lam-glɔ̂ng
barrel in Vietnamese
thùng rượu, thùng tonneau, thùng tròn, nòng
barrel in Myanmar
စည် cany, စည်ပိုင်း canypuing:

Examples of barrel in a sentence

  • I quickly rammed another charge down the barrel and took aim.
  • If you want to keep using that rifle, you'll have to rebore the barrel.
  • We went to a karaoke bar and had a barrel of laughs.

All 40 example sentences with barrel

Synonyms of barrel

Forms of barrel

Noun
pluralbarrels
alternative form (obsolete)barrell
Verb
third-person singular presentbarrels
present participle USbarreling
present participle UKbarrelling
past participle USbarreled
past USbarreled
past participle UKbarrelled
past UKbarrelled

Past tense of barrel: barreled or barrelled

Plural of barrel: barrels

Origin of barrel

From Middle English barel, from Anglo-Norman baril, Old French baril, bareil (“barrel”), of uncertain origin. An attempt to link baril to Old French barre (“bar, bolt”) (compare Medieval Latin barra (“bar, rod”)) via assumed Vulgar Latin *barrīculum meets the phonological requirement, but fails to connect the word semantically. The alternative connection to Frankish *baril, *beril or Gothic *𐌱𐌴𐍂𐌹𐌻𐍃 (*bērils, “container for transport”), from Proto-Germanic *barilaz, *bērilaz (“barrel, jug, container”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰer- (“to carry, transport”), is more plausible as it connects not only the form of the word but also the sense; equivalent to bear + -le. Compare also Old High German biril (“jug, large pot”), Luxembourgish Bärel, Bierel (“jug, pot”), Old Norse berill (“barrel for liquids”), Old English byrla (“barrel of a horse, trunk, body”). More at bear.

Words formed from barrel

Phrases with barrel

72 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with barrel

Questions about barrel

What does barrel mean?
Barrel means a round (cylindrical) vessel, such as a cask, of greater length than breadth, and bulging in the middle, made of staves bound with hoops, and having flat ends (heads). The word is sometimes applied to a similar cylindrical container made of metal, usually called a drum.
What is barrel in Hindi?
Barrel in Hindi is पीपा (pīpā), बैरल (bairal). See Barrel meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is barrel?
Barrel can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce barrel?
Barrel is pronounced /ˈbæɹ(ə)l/ (UK).
What is the plural of barrel?
The plural of barrel is barrels.

Words near barrel in the dictionary

  1. barred warblers
  2. Barreda
  3. Barredas
  4. Barreiro
  5. Barreiros
  6. barrel
  7. barrel adjuster
  8. barrel adjusters
  9. barrel bag
  10. barrel bags
  11. barrel bomb

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: barrel (page history and authors); barrel (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); కొడుపు (Telugu) (page history and authors); barrel (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); कवन्ध (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-ne-Barrel.ogg.

Cite this entry: “barrel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/barrel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.