bar·rel

[bar-uhl] noun, verb, bar·reled, bar·rel·ing or ( especially British ) bar·relled, bar·rel·ling.
noun
1.
a cylindrical wooden container with slightly bulging sides made of staves hooped together, and with flat, parallel ends.
2.
the quantity that such a vessel of some standard size can hold: for most liquids, 31½ U.S. gallons (119 L); for petroleum, 42 U.S. gallons (159 L); for dry materials, 105 U.S. dry quarts (115 L). Abbreviation: bbl
3.
any large quantity: a barrel of fun.
4.
any container, case, or part similar to a wooden barrel in form.
5.
Ordnance. the tube of a gun.
6.
Machinery. the chamber of a pump in which the piston works.
7.
a drum turning on a shaft, as in a weight-driven clock.
8.
Horology. the cylindrical case in a watch or clock within which the mainspring is coiled.
9.
Ornithology Obsolete. a calamus or quill.
10.
the trunk of a quadruped, especially of a horse, cow, etc.
11.
Nautical. the main portion of a capstan, about which the rope winds, between the drumhead at the top and the pawl rim at the bottom.
12.
a rotating horizontal cylinder in which manufactured objects are coated or polished by tumbling in a suitable substance.
13.
any structure having the form of a barrel vault.
14.
Also called throat. Automotive. a passageway in a carburetor that has the shape of a Venturi tube.
verb (used with object)
15.
to put or pack in a barrel or barrels.
16.
to finish (metal parts) by tumbling in a barrel.
17.
Informal. to force to go or proceed at high speed: He barreled his car through the dense traffic.
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verb (used without object)
18.
Informal. to travel or drive very fast: to barrel along the highway.
Idioms
19.
over a barrel, Informal. in a helpless, weak, or awkward position; unable to act: They really had us over a barrel when they foreclosed the mortgage.
Origin:
1250–1300; Middle English barell < Anglo-French baril, Old French barril < Vulgar Latin *barrīculum, equivalent to *barrīc(a), perhaps derivative of Late Latin barra bar1 + Latin -ulum -ule; compare Medieval Latin (circa 800) barriclus small cask

Related forms
half-bar·rel, noun
un·bar·reled, adjective
un·bar·relled, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
barrel (ˈbærəl) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
—n
1.  a cylindrical container usually bulging outwards in the middle and held together by metal hoops; cask
2.  Also called: barrelful the amount that a barrel can hold
3.  a unit of capacity used in brewing, equal to 36 Imperial gallons
4.  a unit of capacity used in the oil and other industries, normally equal to 42 US gallons or 35 Imperial gallons
5.  a thing or part shaped like a barrel, esp a tubular part of a machine
6.  the tube through which the projectile of a firearm is discharged
7.  horology the cylindrical drum in a watch or clock that is rotated by the mainspring
8.  the trunk of a four-legged animal: the barrel of a horse
9.  the quill of a feather
10.  informal a large measure; a great deal (esp in the phrases barrel of fun, barrel of laughs)
11.  informal (Austral) the hollow inner side of a wave
12.  informal over a barrel powerless
13.  informal scrape the barrel to be forced to use one's last and weakest resource
 
—vb , -rels, -relling, -relled, -rels, -reling, -reled
14.  (tr) to put into a barrel or barrels
15.  informal (intr; foll by along, in, etc), (intr) to travel or move very fast
16.  informal (Austral) to ride on the inside of a wave
 
[C14: from Old French baril perhaps from barrebar1]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

barrel
c.1300, from O.Fr. baril (12c.) "barrel, cask, vat," with cognates in all Romance languages (cf. It. barile, Sp. barril), but origin uncertain; perhaps from Gaulish, perhaps somehow related to bar (1). Meaning "metal tube of a gun" is from 1640s. The verb meaning "to move quickly"
is 1930, Amer.Eng. slang, perhaps suggestive of a rolling barrel.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Slang Dictionary

barrel definition


  1. tv. & in.
    to drink liquor to excess. : Stop barreling beer and let's go home.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Easton
Bible Dictionary

Barrel definition


a vessel used for keeping flour (1 Kings 17:12, 14, 16). The same word (cad) so rendered is also translated "pitcher," a vessel for carrying water (Gen. 24:14; Judg. 7:16).

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases

barrel

see both barrels; bottom of the barrel; cash on the barrelhead; like shooting fish in a barrel; lock, stock, and barrel; more fun than a barrel of monkeys; over a barrel; pork barrel; rotten apple (spoils the barrel).

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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Encyclopedia Britannica
Encyclopedia

barrel

large, bulging cylindrical container of sturdy construction traditionally made from wooden staves and wooden or metal hoops. The term is also a unit of volume measure, specifically 31 gallons of a fermented or distilled beverage, or 42 gallons of a petroleum product. According to the 1st-century-AD Roman historian Pliny the Elder, the ancient craft of barrel making, also called cooperage, was invented by the inhabitants of the Alpine valleys.

Learn more about barrel with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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Example sentences
It's either cash on the barrel or electronic transfers between bank accounts.
The easiest way to see the thundering falls up close isn't in a barrel.
Too many barrel-aged beers are cloying and needlessly hot with alcohol.
Each of the caps of a vault's barrel is made from a ring of proteins.
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