cask
Americannoun
-
a container made and shaped like a barrel, especially one larger and stronger, for holding liquids.
-
the quantity such a container holds.
wine at 32 guineas a cask.
verb (used with object)
noun
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a strong wooden barrel used mainly to hold alcoholic drink
a wine cask
-
any barrel
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the quantity contained in a cask
-
a lightweight cardboard container with plastic lining and a small tap, used to hold and serve wine
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engineering another name for flask
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of cask
1425–75; late Middle English; back formation from casket, the -et being taken as the diminutive suffix
Explanation
A barrel-shaped container that holds wine or other, usually alcoholic, beverages is called a cask. If you visit a winery, you will often see many rows of wooden wine-filled casks lining the caves and cellars of the winery. If you have a large party, you can open a cask of wine. Experts aren't exactly sure what the origin of the word cask is. They know that it is a noun that comes from the Middle French word casque or the Spanish word casco, and both mean "helmet," but how we got from helmet to wine-filled barrel-shaped container is unclear. Students may have heard of the word cask from Edgar Allan Poe's famous short story of revenge and murder set in a wine cellar, "The Cask of Amontillado."
Vocabulary lists containing cask
We Are Not Free
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The Sun Also Rises
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The Brooklyn Nine
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Two middle-aged Americans, matching orange ringlets marking them as brothers, quizzed the bartender about cask types and chill filtration.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 16, 2026
Sotheby's said the 40 bottles from the 1926 cask had been labelled in different ways.
From BBC • Nov. 18, 2023
But Gerry's lament is drawn from a cask of finely aged romance no twenty- or thirtysomething could possibly access, a heretofore unknown cocktail on this show.
From Salon • Sep. 28, 2023
Some 380 employees departed after closure while about 220 remain, handling site and security upgrades and preparing to transfer spent fuel from a cooling pool to dry cask storage.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 26, 2023
Arya thrust her wooden sword through her belt and began to climb, leaping from cask to cask until she could reach the window.
From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
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.
