hogshead

[ hawgz-hed, hogz- ]

/ ˈhɔgzˌhɛd, ˈhɒgz- /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR hogshead ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a large cask, especially one containing from 63 to 140 gallons (238 to 530 liters).

any of various units of liquid measure, especially one equivalent to 63 gallons (238 liters). Abbreviation: hhd

RELATED WORDS

drum, keg, cask, vessel, barrel, vat

Nearby words

Origin of hogshead

1350–1400; Middle English hoggeshed, literally, hog's head; unexplained

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for hogshead

“If BMW is ‘the ultimate driving machine,’ your Anthem is the ultimate differentiator,” writes Hogshead.
Can Self-Help Books Really Make a New You?|Lizzie Crocker|December 29, 2014|DAILY BEAST
This Silenus, with a stomach like a hogshead, still believes himself a danger to womankind.
Cyrano de Bergerac|Edmond Rostand
What she did see was Lionel Hezekiah sitting on the bottom of the hogshead in water that came only to his waist.
Chronicles of Avonlea|Lucy Maud Montgomery
Hogshead is a prettier fellow than Culverin, by two quarts; and Culverin than Musquet, by a full pint.
Thackerayana|William Makepeace Thackeray

As satisfaction he was to get "two hundred & thirty waight of tobacco in leafe & smothed together with one hogshead."
The First Seventeen Years: Virginia 1607-1624|Charles E. Hatch
No, I'm going to bid on the biggest thing there, if it be a hogshead.
Talbot's Angles|Amy E. Blanchard

British Dictionary definitions for hogshead

hogshead

/ (ˈhɒɡzˌhɛd) /

noun

a unit of capacity, used esp for alcoholic beverages. It has several values, being 54 imperial gallons in the case of beer and 52.5 imperial gallons in the case of wine

a large cask used for shipment of wines and spirits

Word Origin for hogshead

C14: of obscure origin

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 hogshead

hogshead

"large cask or barrel," late 14c., presumably on some perceived resemblance. The original liquid measure was 63 old wine gallons (by a statute of 1423); later anywhere from 100 to 140 gallons. Borrowed into other Germanic languages, oddly, as ox-head (cf. Dutch okshoofd, German oxhoft, Swedish oxhufvud).