keg
[keg]
- a small cask or barrel, usually holding from 5 to 10 gallons (19 to 38 liters).
- a unit of weight, equal to 100 pounds (45 kilograms), used for nails.
- Also keg·ger. a keg party; beer bust.
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Origin of keg
1585–95; earlier cag < Old Norse kaggi
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for keg
Contemporary Examples
For the senior senator from Louisiana, the lasting image from her fourth Senate campaign will be a keg stand.
Not her own—but Landrieu did provide an assist to a man doing a keg stand at Louisiana State University.
He also crashes parties in Williamsburg and is skilled at tapping a keg.
Chasing a group of teens off a keg in the woods is what usually passes for an exciting day for the Springfield police.
Historical Examples
The third man snorted as he shouldered a keg and moved toward the Wagon.
The Law-BreakersRidgwell Cullum
I urged him to grab the other side of the keg several times.
After reaching the keg I turned to see what had been the fate of our boat.
That keg—like liberty—was to be at the price of eternal vigilance.
Wild Justice: Stories of the South SeasLloyd Osbourne
There he is on the comb of that sea, rolling over like a keg!
keg
- a small barrel with a capacity of between five and ten gallons
- British
- an aluminium container in which beer is transported and stored
- Also called: keg beerbeer kept in a keg: it is infused with gas and served under pressure
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Word Origin
C17: variant of Middle English kag, of Scandinavian origin; related to Old Norse kaggi cask
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 keg
n.
1630s, earlier kag (mid-15c.), from a Scandinavian source, cf. Old Norse kaggi "keg, cask," of unknown origin. Cognate with Swedish kagge, Norwegian kagg. Specific sense of "barrel of beer" is from 1945. U.S. student slang kegger "party featuring a keg of beer" attested by 1969.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with keg
keg
see sitting on a powder keg.
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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.