kilderkin

American  

[kil-der-kin] / ˈkɪl dər kɪn /

noun

1. a unit of capacity, usually equal to half a barrel or two firkins.

2. an English unit of capacity, equal to 18 imperial gallons (82 liters).

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kilderkin British  

/ ˈkɪldəkɪn /

noun

1. an obsolete unit of liquid capacity equal to 16 or 18 Imperial gallons or of dry capacity equal to 16 or 18 wine gallons

2. a cask capable of holding a kilderkin

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Etymology

Origin of kilderkin

1350–1400; Middle English, dissimilated variant of kinderkin < Middle Dutch, equivalent to kinder (≪ Arabic qinṭār quintal ) + -kin -kin

Example Sentences

What worms do another day, I care not, but I'll be sworn upon a whole kilderkin of single beer, I will not have a worm-eaten nose, like a pursuivant, while I live.

From A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 8 by Hazlitt, William Carew

His enormous legs seemed calculated by nature to embrace the body of his charger, and he sat erect like an overgrown Bacchus bestriding a kilderkin of beer.

From Tales from "Blackwood," Volume 2 by Various

A tun of man in thy large bulk is writ, But sure thou art but a kilderkin of wit.

From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 58, Number 358, August 1845 by Various

Bagsby, as the individual least competent to enforce order, was called to the chair, and seated upon a kilderkin of Bordeaux, with a spigot as the emblem of authority.

From Tales from Blackwood Volume 5 by Various

A tun of man in thy large bulk is writ, But sure thou'rt but a kilderkin of wit.

From English Satires by Smeaton, William Henry Oliphant