Barrel

English

Barrel (plural Barrels)

(countable) A round vessel or cask, of greater length than breadth, and bulging in the middle, made of staves bound with hoops, and having flat ends or heads. Sometimes applied to a similar cylindrical container made of metal, usually called a drum.
The quantity which constitutes a full barrel. This varies for different articles and also in different places for the same article, being regulated by custom or by law. A barrel of wine is 31 1/2 gallons; a barrel of flour is 196 pounds; of beer 31 gallons; of ale 32 gallons; of crude oil 42 gallons.
A solid drum, or a hollow cylinder or case;
A metallic tube, as of a gun, from which a projectile is discharged.
(obsolete) A jar. 1 Kings xvii. 12.
(archaic) A tube.
(zoology) The hollow basal part of a feather.
(music) The part of a clarinet which connects the mouthpiece and upper joint, and looks rather like a barrel (1).
(surfing) A wave that breaks with a hollow compartment.
(US, specifically New England) A waste receptacle.
The ribs and belly of a horse or pony.

Barrel (third-person singular simple present Barrels, present participle barrelling, simple past and past participle barrelled)

dilapidated; hoopless; cobwebbed; moss-grown; sagging; scarred; slimy; stout; warped.

bung—; measure—; pipe—; pump from—; roll—; store in—; stove in—; tap—; valve—; —bulges; —reeks; —resounds; —thuds; —thunders; —tumbles.

From Middle English barrell, from Anglo-Norman baril, Old French baril, bareil (“barrel”), of uncertain origin. An attempt to link baril to Old French barre (“bar, bolt”) (compare Medieval Latin barra (“bar, rod”)) via assumed Vulgar Latin *barrīculum meets the phonological requirement, but fails to connect the word semantically. The alternate connection to the Germanic source: Frankish *baril, *beril or Gothic 𐌱𐌴𐍂𐌹𐌻𐍃 (berils, “container for transport”), from Proto-Germanic *barilaz (“barrel, jug, container”), from Proto-Indo-European *bher-, *bhrē- (“to carry, transport”), is more plausible as it connects not only the form of the word but also the sense. Compare also Old High German biril (“jug, large pot”), Luxembourgish Bärel, Bierel (“jug, pot”), Old Norse berill (“barrel for liquids”), Old English byrla (“barrel of a horse, trunk, body”). More at bear.