BARREL (barrelled, barrelling)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: barrelled    , barrelling   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does barrel mean? 

• BARREL (noun)
  The noun BARREL has 5 senses:

1. a tube through which a bullet travels when a gun is fired

2. a cylindrical container that holds liquids

3. a bulging cylindrical shape; hollow with flat ends

4. the quantity that a barrel (of any size) will hold

5. any of various units of capacity

  Familiarity information: BARREL used as a noun is common.

• BARREL (verb)
  The verb BARREL has 1 sense:

1. put in barrels

  Familiarity information: BARREL used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BARREL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A tube through which a bullet travels when a gun is fired

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

barrel; gun barrel

Hypernyms ("barrel" is a kind of...):

tube; tubing (conduit consisting of a long hollow object (usually cylindrical) used to hold and conduct objects or liquids or gases)

Holonyms ("barrel" is a part of...):

gun (a weapon that discharges a missile at high velocity (especially from a metal tube or barrel))

Sense 2

Meaning:

A cylindrical container that holds liquids

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

barrel; cask

Hypernyms ("barrel" is a kind of...):

vessel (an object used as a container (especially for liquids))

Meronyms (parts of "barrel"):

breech; rear of barrel; rear of tube (opening in the rear of the barrel of a gun where bullets can be loaded)

spigot; tap (a plug for a bunghole in a cask)

lag; stave (one of several thin slats of wood forming the sides of a barrel or bucket)

hoop; ring (a rigid circular band of metal or wood or other material used for holding or fastening or hanging or pulling)

bung; spile (a plug used to close a hole in a barrel or flask)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "barrel"):

beer barrel; beer keg (a barrel that holds beer)

butt (a large cask (especially one holding a volume equivalent to 2 hogsheads or 126 gallons))

hogshead (a large cask especially one holding 63 gals)

keg (small cask or barrel)

pickle barrel (a barrel holding vinegar in which cucumbers are pickled)

shook (a disassembled barrel; the parts packed for storage or shipment)

tun (a large cask especially one holding a volume equivalent to 2 butts or 252 gals)

wine barrel; wine cask (a barrel that holds wine)

Derivation:

barrel (put in barrels)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A bulging cylindrical shape; hollow with flat ends

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Synonyms:

barrel; drum

Hypernyms ("barrel" is a kind of...):

cylinder (a surface generated by rotating a parallel line around a fixed line)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The quantity that a barrel (of any size) will hold

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Synonyms:

barrel; barrelful

Hypernyms ("barrel" is a kind of...):

containerful (the quantity that a container will hold)

Derivation:

barrel (put in barrels)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Any of various units of capacity

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Synonyms:

barrel; bbl

Context example:

a barrel of beer is 31 gallons and a barrel of oil is 42 gallons

Hypernyms ("barrel" is a kind of...):

United States liquid unit (a liquid unit officially adopted in the United States Customary System)

British capacity unit; Imperial capacity unit (a unit of measure for capacity officially adopted in the British Imperial System; British units are both dry and wet)

Meronyms (parts of "barrel"):

gal; gallon (United States liquid unit equal to 4 quarts or 3.785 liters)

congius; gallon; Imperial gallon (a British imperial capacity measure (liquid or dry) equal to 4 quarts or 4.545 liters)

Holonyms ("barrel" is a part of...):

hogshead (a British unit of capacity for alcoholic beverages)

• BARREL (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they barrel    ... he / she / it barrels   
Past simple: barreled    / barrelled   
Past participle: barreled    / barrelled   
-ing form: barreling    / barrelling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Put in barrels

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "barrel" is one way to...):

lay; place; pose; position; put; set (put into a certain place or abstract location)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

barrel (a cylindrical container that holds liquids)

barrel (the quantity that a barrel (of any size) will hold)

 Context examples 

A dish of their meat was a good mouthful, and a barrel of their liquor a reasonable draught.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

"I maka da kids worka da pole an' da hub an' da barrel. Him da smarta man, Mister Eden."

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

By his description, a good deal like the second size double-barrel of mine, which you shot with one day round Winthrop.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

I think, if I had been able, that I would have killed him through the barrel.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

We went down a winding stone stair, and my companion, striking a match, lit a large lantern which stood on a barrel in the corner.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There was only the one pistol found in the room, two barrels of which had been emptied.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The innocent little peasant was unanimously sentenced to death, and was to be rolled into the water, in a barrel pierced full of holes.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

While running through the barrel, the water is filtered alternatively by the bricks and the gravel.

(Soil-based filter bricks clean up water for Moroccan farmers, SciDev.Net)

Unlike any other planet in our solar system, Uranus spins almost perfectly on its side completing a barrel roll once every 17 hours.

(The ice giant Uranus appears to be losing a bit of its atmosphere to space, NASA)

The shape of the chest is often regarded as potential insight into a disease process, as in the case of barrel chest and respiratory dysfunction.

(Chest, NCI Thesaurus)