kilderkin
Americannoun
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a unit of capacity, usually equal to half a barrel or two firkins.
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an English unit of capacity, equal to 18 imperial gallons (82 liters).
noun
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an obsolete unit of liquid capacity equal to 16 or 18 Imperial gallons or of dry capacity equal to 16 or 18 wine gallons
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a cask capable of holding a kilderkin
Etymology
Origin of kilderkin
1350–1400; Middle English, dissimilated variant of kinderkin < Middle Dutch, equivalent to kinder (≪ Arabic qinṭār quintal ) + -kin -kin
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.
Alas for him who is condemned to that den the Court, where flattery is sold by the kilderkin, malignity and ill-offices are measured out in bushels, deceit and treachery are weighed by the ton!
From Stories from the Pentamerone by Giambattista Basile
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 art but a kilderkin of wit.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 58, Number 358, August 1845 by Various
Devil a drop have you left in the great kilderkin.
From The White Company by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
