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.
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
Devil a drop have you left in the great kilderkin.
From The White Company by Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir
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
Hear'st thou, dough-belly! because thou talk'st and talk'st, and dar'st not drink to me a black jack, wilt thou give me leave to broach this little kilderkin of my corpse against thy back?
From A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Volume 8 by Hazlitt, William Carew
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
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.
