barrel

noun

1. (countable)A round (cylindrical) vessel, such as a cask, of greater length than breadth, and bulging in the middle, made of staves bound with hoops, and having flat ends (heads). The word is sometimes applied to a similar cylindrical container made of metal, usually called a drum.

   “Near-synonym: cask”

   “a cracker barrel”

   “The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices).”

2. (countable)A round (cylindrical) vessel, such as a cask, of greater length than breadth, and bulging in the middle, made of staves bound with hoops, and having flat ends (heads). The word is sometimes applied to a similar cylindrical container made of metal, usually called a drum.

   “Barrels came in firkins, nine gallons; kilderkins, eighteen gallons; halves, twenty-seven gallons; barrels, thirty-six gallons and hogsheads, fifty-four.”

3. The quantity which constitutes a full barrel: the volume or weight this represents varies by local law and custom.

   “Again, by 28 Hen. VIII, cap. 14, it is re-enacted that the tun of wine should contain 252 gallons, a butt of Malmsey 126 gallons, a pipe 126 gallons, a tercian or puncheon 84 gallons, a hogshead 63 gallons, a tierce 41 gallons, a barrel 31.5 gallons, a rundlet 18.5 gallons.”

   “23 Hen. VIII, cap. 4... The barrel of beer is to hold 36 gallons, the kilderkin 18 gallons the firkin 9. But the barrel, kilderkin, and firkin of ale are to contain 32, 16, and 8 gallons.”

4. A solid drum, or a hollow cylinder or case

   “the barrel of a windlass; the barrel of a watch, within which the spring is coiled.”

5. A metallic tube, as of a gun, from which a projectile is discharged.

   “You're shooting stars from the barrel of your eyes”

6. A venturi (in carburetion).
7. A ceiling-mounted tube from which lights are suspended.

   “Moreover, it adds to difficulties in adjusting/servicing lamps located over high scenery, ceilings etc., where the barrel networks cannot be lowered or reached.”

   “The barrel, which is usually from 2.0 m to 2.5 m long, and capable of lifting loads up to 120 kg, is suspended from the main housing which contains the motor gearbox unit, etc.”

8. (archaic)Any tube.
9. The hollow basal part of a feather.
10. The part of a clarinet which connects the mouthpiece and upper joint, and resembles a barrel.
11. A wave that breaks with a hollow compartment.
12. (New-England, US, specifically)A waste receptacle.

    “Throw it into the trash barrel.”

13. The ribs and belly of a horse or pony.
14. (obsolete)A jar.

    “And ſhe ſaid, As the Lord thy God liueth, I haue not a cake, but an handfull of meale in a barrell, and a little oyle in a cruſe: [...]”

15. Any of the dark-staining regions in the somatosensory cortex of rodents, etc., where somatosensory inputs from the contralateral side of the body come in from the thalamus.
16. A statistic derived from launch angle and exit velocity of a ball hit in play.

    “For quotations using this term, see Citations:barrel.”

verb

1. (transitive)To put or to pack in a barrel or barrels.
2. (intransitive)To move quickly or in an uncontrolled manner.

   “He came barrelling around the corner and I almost hit him.”

   “Snow shattered and spilled down the slope. Within seconds, the avalanche was the size of more than a thousand cars barreling down the mountain and weighed millions of pounds.”

   “Days before Trump’s inauguration, his envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, barrelled into Israel with a demand to meet Netanyahu on Shabbat in order to strongarm him into negotiating a ceasefire deal with Hamas in Gaza.”

3. (intransitive)To assume the shape of a barrel; specifically, of the image on a computer display, television, etc., to exhibit barrel distortion, where the sides bulge outwards.
4. (slang)To bet consecutively on multiple streets.