Word.ws English Dictionary

pork barrel

UK/ˈpɔːkˌbaɹəl/

pork barrel noun: a barrel used to store pork.

Noun

pork barrel (plural pork barrels)

  1. (archaic) A barrel used to store pork.
  2. (US) A ready supply of income; one's livelihood.
  3. (US, attributive, often) State funds as assigned for local or regional expenditure; especially, central money used for regional projects which are eyecatching or designed to appeal to voters.
    • As the President said in his veto message, "It should also come as no surprise that over time the program has attained distinct flavor of pork barrel."1973 April 10, James T. Lynn, “Pork-Barrel Waste”, in The New York Times
    • President Reagan used part of his State of the Union address to berate Congress for sending him catchall spending bills laden with pork barrel benefits for "cranberry research, blueberry research, the study of crawfish, and the commercialization of wild flowers."1988 February 24, Tom Kenworthy, “Reagan Drops Bid to Cut Pork-Barrel Spending”, in The Washington Post

pork barrel meaning in Indonesian

pork barrel in Indonesian

funds assigned for local expenditure
gentong babi

Forms of pork barrel

pluralpork barrels
alternative formporkbarrel
alternative formpork-barrel

Words formed from pork barrel

Questions about pork barrel

What does pork barrel mean?
Pork barrel means a barrel used to store pork.
What is pork barrel in Indonesian?
Pork barrel in Indonesian is gentong babi. See Pork barrel meaning in Indonesian.
What part of speech is pork barrel?
Pork barrel is a noun.
How do you pronounce pork barrel?
Pork barrel is pronounced /ˈpɔːkˌbaɹəl/ (UK).
What is the plural of pork barrel?
The plural of pork barrel is pork barrels.

Words near pork barrel in the dictionary

  1. Porjus
  2. pork
  3. pork and bean
  4. pork and beans
  5. Pork and Beans War
  6. pork barrel
  7. pork barrelling
  8. pork barrels
  9. pork bellies
  10. pork belly
  11. pork butcher

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pork barrel (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.

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