Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use barrel in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb

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. Example: “Throw it into the trash barrel.”

Examples of barrel by meaning

nounA round (cylindrical) vessel, such as a cask, of greater length than breadth, and bulging in the middle, made of staves...

  • a cracker barrel
  • The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices).2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847

nounSuch 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

nounA solid drum, or a hollow cylinder or case.

  • the barrel of a windlass; the barrel of a watch, within which the spring is coiled.

nounA 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

nounA ceiling-mounted tube from which lights are suspended.

  • 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

nounA waste receptacle.

  • Throw it into the trash barrel.

nounA statistic derived from launch angle and exit velocity of a ball hit in play.

  • For quotations using this term, see Citations:barrel.

verbTo move quickly or in an uncontrolled manner.

  • He came barrelling around the corner and I almost hit him.
  • 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
  • Days before Trump’s inauguration, his envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, barrelled into Israel with a demand to meet Netanyahu on Shabbat in order to strongarm him into negotiating a ceasefire deal with Hamas in Gaza.2025 June 22, Andrew Roth, “What a difference a week makes: Trump falls into the Netanyahu trap”, in The Guardian

More sentences with barrel

  • I quickly rammed another charge down the barrel and took aim.From the entry ram
  • If you want to keep using that rifle, you'll have to rebore the barrel.From the entry rebore
  • We went to a karaoke bar and had a barrel of laughs.From the entry barrel of laughs
  • They want to buy the whole thing, lock, stock and barrel.From the entry lock, stock and barrel
  • They kept a barrel to store rainwater that has run off the roof.From the entry run off
  • He caved in the side of the barrel with a single well-placed kick.From the entry cave in
  • He thinks he’s a barrel of monkeys, but he’s not particularly entertaining.From the entry barrel of monkeys
  • The sawed-off shotgun was illegal because its shorter barrel made it too easy to conceal.From the entry sawed-off
  • Now use your rammer to pack it tightly into the barrel.From the entry rammer
  • The cellar was a bareish room containing a long shelf and a few wine barrels.From the entry bareish
  • We all went out to a karaoke bar and had a barrel of fun.From the entry barrel of fun
  • Two hours of root canal surgery – that sounds like a barrel of fun.From the entry barrel of fun
  • He was so bandylegged, you could roll a barrel between his knees.From the entry bandylegged
  • On many semiautomatic pistols, the barrel is beneath the slide.From the entry slide
  • He tapped the ten-year-old whiskey from its barrel.From the entry tap
  • To roll a wheel, a ball, or a barrel.From the entry roll
  • The barrel guzzled out beer from the hole.From the entry guzzle
  • Tilt the barrel to pour out its contents.From the entry tilt
  • They must really have been scraping the bottom of the barrel if they couldn't find a better design than that.From the entry scrape the bottom of the barrel
  • The ship leaked like a sieve and rode like a barrel; in other words it was completely lacking in seaworthiness.From the entry seaworthiness
  • "We'll get an axe and stave in all these barrels and the liquid will all run out", threatened the man.From the entry stave in
  • The butler drew off wine from a barrel.From the entry draw off
  • The barrel was sealed with pitch.From the entry pitch
  • "One of our kittens started chewing on the chair the other day and now they're all doing it! Just goes to show that one bad apple can spoil the barrel."From the entry one bad apple can spoil the barrel
  • Rightwing media mouthpieces and ICE get both barrels in South Park’s latest zeitgeist-capturing satire.2025 August 7, Zach Vasquez, “From puppy murder to racist podcasts: South Park’s anti-deportation episode is utterly ruthless TV”, in The…. From the entry mouthpiece
  • Barrel jeans are all the rave rn—let's see you in a pair!2024 October 8, Megan Uy, Tarah-Lynn Saint-Elien, “65+ Fall Prime Day Fashion Deals Your Closet Is Begging You to Shop”, in Cosmopolitan. From the entry rn
  • Where this has proved impossible, we've outsourced the process using barrels, jars, comost heaps and industrial fermenters.2020, Merlin Sheldrake, Entangled Life, page 205. From the entry fermenter
  • Also called "African milk barrel," this plant has a beautiful silver skin.2020 March 10, Misa Matsuyama, “Euphorbia horrida”, in The Gardener's Guide to Succulents: A Handbook of Over 125 Exquisite Varieties of…. From the entry African milk barrel
  • Pitch could be used to resinate wine barrels (4.6.2), among other things.2018, Duane W. Roller, A Historical and Topographical Guide to the Geography of Strabo, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN. From the entry resinate

Meaning of barrel

  1. 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.
  2. noun Such a cask of a certain size, holding one-eighth of what a tun holds. (See a diagram comparing cask sizes.).
  3. noun The quantity which constitutes a full barrel: the volume or weight this represents varies by local law and custom.

Full definition of barrel

Questions about barrel in a sentence

How do you use barrel in a sentence?
Barrel is used as a noun and verb. For example: “Throw it into the trash barrel.”
What is a short sentence with barrel?
“a cracker 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.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: barrel (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use barrel in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/barrel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.