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barrel
[ bar-uhl ]
noun
- a cylindrical wooden container with slightly bulging sides made of staves hooped together, and with flat, parallel ends.
- the quantity that such a vessel of some standard size can hold: for most liquids, 31½ U.S. gallons (119 L); for petroleum, 42 U.S. gallons (159 L); for dry materials, 105 U.S. dry quarts (115 L). : bbl
- any large quantity:
a barrel of fun.
- any container, case, or part similar to a wooden barrel in form.
- Ordnance. the tube of a gun.
- Machinery. the chamber of a pump in which the piston works.
- a drum turning on a shaft, as in a weight-driven clock.
- Horology. the cylindrical case in a watch or clock within which the mainspring is coiled.
- Ornithology Obsolete. a calamus or quill.
- the trunk of a quadruped, especially of a horse, cow, etc.
- Nautical. the main portion of a capstan, about which the rope winds, between the drumhead at the top and the pawl rim at the bottom.
- a rotating horizontal cylinder in which manufactured objects are coated or polished by tumbling in a suitable substance.
- any structure having the form of a barrel vault.
- Also called throat. Automotive. a passageway in a carburetor that has the shape of a Venturi tube.
verb (used with object)
- to put or pack in a barrel or barrels.
- to finish (metal parts) by tumbling in a barrel.
- Informal. to force to go or proceed at high speed:
He barreled his car through the dense traffic.
verb (used without object)
- Informal. to travel or drive very fast:
to barrel along the highway.
barrel
/ ˈbærəl /
noun
- a cylindrical container usually bulging outwards in the middle and held together by metal hoops; cask
- Also calledbarrelful the amount that a barrel can hold
- a unit of capacity used in brewing, equal to 36 Imperial gallons
- a unit of capacity used in the oil and other industries, normally equal to 42 US gallons or 35 Imperial gallons
- a thing or part shaped like a barrel, esp a tubular part of a machine
- the tube through which the projectile of a firearm is discharged
- horology the cylindrical drum in a watch or clock that is rotated by the mainspring
- the trunk of a four-legged animal
the barrel of a horse
- the quill of a feather
- informal.a large measure; a great deal (esp in the phrases barrel of fun, barrel of laughs )
- informal.the hollow inner side of a wave
- over a barrel informal.powerless
- scrape the barrel informal.to be forced to use one's last and weakest resource
verb
- tr to put into a barrel or barrels
- informal.intr; foll by along, in, etc intr to travel or move very fast
- informal.to ride on the inside of a wave
Other Words From
- half-barrel noun
- un·barreled adjective
- un·barrelled adjective
Word History and Origins
Word History and Origins
Origin of barrel1
Idioms and Phrases
- over a barrel, Informal. in a helpless, weak, or awkward position; unable to act:
They really had us over a barrel when they foreclosed the mortgage.
More idioms and phrases containing barrel
see both barrels ; bottom of the barrel ; cash on the barrelhead ; like shooting fish in a barrel ; lock, stock, and barrel ; more fun than a barrel of monkeys ; over a barrel ; pork barrel ; rotten apple (spoils the barrel) .Example Sentences
Upon harvest, the bags of mycelium were extracted in large barrels full of alcohol to produce the cure for the bees.
Both Rystad Energy and Wood Mackenzie, the Edinburgh-based energy consultancy, put the break-even price for existing oil-sands production at around $45 per barrel, with some projects able to keep the lights on in the $20 to $30 range.
Since those averages are currently only recorded through June 2020, revenue calculations for 2020 averaged oil barrel prices for the first six months of the year.
The tubs are made of a strong, lightweight plastic, much like the standard food barrels you get from outfitters, only smaller.
Typewriter factories were converted to produce rifle barrels, while those that couldn’t went on making typewriters exclusively for the government.
That clear spirit is what goes into every barrel of The Macallan.
And for Scotch in particular—which can spend decades in the barrel—wood is critical to the finished spirit.
Their legendary barrel aging program is unique, even among Scottish distilleries, for its range of natural color expressions.
Gelhaus proceeded to fire eight shots at Gonzalez, striking him seven times, when he said Gonzalez raised the barrel.
On his knees, he pulls out a gun and places the barrel inside his mouth.
One hundred to the right barrel—nothing left for the second barrel!
It wasn't any scruple of mercy, for Hicks was as cold-blooded a brute as ever glanced down a gun-barrel.
A Laplander who cannot get Tobacco sucks chips of a barrel or pieces of anything else which has contained it.
In the fall the barrel of his rifle had been so covered with dead leaves and dust that he could not take aim.
The second barrel was discharged with no better result, except that a splinter of its horn was knocked off.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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