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barrel

[bar-uh l]
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noun
  1. a cylindrical wooden container with slightly bulging sides made of staves hooped together, and with flat, parallel ends.
  2. 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). Abbreviation: bbl
  3. any large quantity: a barrel of fun.
  4. any container, case, or part similar to a wooden barrel in form.
  5. Ordnance. the tube of a gun.
  6. Machinery. the chamber of a pump in which the piston works.
  7. a drum turning on a shaft, as in a weight-driven clock.
  8. Horology. the cylindrical case in a watch or clock within which the mainspring is coiled.
  9. Ornithology Obsolete. a calamus or quill.
  10. the trunk of a quadruped, especially of a horse, cow, etc.
  11. 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.
  12. a rotating horizontal cylinder in which manufactured objects are coated or polished by tumbling in a suitable substance.
  13. any structure having the form of a barrel vault.
  14. Also called throat. Automotive. a passageway in a carburetor that has the shape of a Venturi tube.
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verb (used with object), bar·reled, bar·rel·ing or (especially British) bar·relled, bar·rel·ling.
  1. to put or pack in a barrel or barrels.
  2. to finish (metal parts) by tumbling in a barrel.
  3. Informal. to force to go or proceed at high speed: He barreled his car through the dense traffic.
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verb (used without object), bar·reled, bar·rel·ing or (especially British) bar·relled, bar·rel·ling.
  1. Informal. to travel or drive very fast: to barrel along the highway.
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Idioms
  1. 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.
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Origin of barrel

1250–1300; Middle English barell < Anglo-French baril, Old French barril < Vulgar Latin *barrīculum, equivalent to *barrīc(a), perhaps derivative of Late Latin barra bar1 + Latin -ulum -ule; compare Medieval Latin (circa 800) barriclus small cask
Related formshalf-bar·rel, nounun·bar·reled, adjectiveun·bar·relled, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

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British Dictionary definitions for barreling

barrel

noun
  1. a cylindrical container usually bulging outwards in the middle and held together by metal hoops; cask
  2. Also called: barrelful the amount that a barrel can hold
  3. a unit of capacity used in brewing, equal to 36 Imperial gallons
  4. a unit of capacity used in the oil and other industries, normally equal to 42 US gallons or 35 Imperial gallons
  5. a thing or part shaped like a barrel, esp a tubular part of a machine
  6. the tube through which the projectile of a firearm is discharged
  7. horology the cylindrical drum in a watch or clock that is rotated by the mainspring
  8. the trunk of a four-legged animalthe barrel of a horse
  9. the quill of a feather
  10. informal a large measure; a great deal (esp in the phrases barrel of fun, barrel of laughs)
  11. Australian informal the hollow inner side of a wave
  12. over a barrel informal powerless
  13. scrape the barrel informal to be forced to use one's last and weakest resource
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verb -rels, -relling or -relled or US -rels, -reling or -reled
  1. (tr) to put into a barrel or barrels
  2. (intr ; foll by along, in, etc) informal (intr) to travel or move very fast
  3. Australian informal to ride on the inside of a wave
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Word Origin

C14: from Old French baril perhaps from barre bar 1
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for barreling

barrel

v.

mid-15c., "to put in barrels," from barrel (n.). Meaning "to move quickly" is 1930, American English slang, perhaps suggestive of a rolling barrel. Related: Barreled; barreling.

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barrel

n.

c.1300, from Old French baril (12c.) "barrel, cask, vat," with cognates in all Romance languages (e.g. Italian barile, Spanish barril), but origin uncertain; perhaps from Gaulish, perhaps somehow related to bar (n.1). Meaning "metal tube of a gun" is from 1640s. Barrel roll in aeronautics is from 1927.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

Idioms and Phrases with barreling

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).

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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.