barrels

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

   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
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

See all 20 meanings of barrel