TUN (tunned, tunning)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: tunned    , tunning   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does tun mean? 

• TUN (noun)
  The noun TUN has 1 sense:

1. a large cask especially one holding a volume equivalent to 2 butts or 252 gals

  Familiarity information: TUN used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TUN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A large cask especially one holding a volume equivalent to 2 butts or 252 gals

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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

barrel; cask (a cylindrical container that holds liquids)

 Context examples 

We had a charming time poking about the ruins, the vaults where the monster tun is, and the beautiful gardens made by the elector long ago for his English wife.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Whilst Chandos had been conversing with the two knights a continuous stream of suitors had been ushered in, adventurers seeking to sell their swords and merchants clamoring over some grievance, a ship detained for the carriage of troops, or a tun of sweet wine which had the bottom knocked out by a troop of thirsty archers.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I told him, “that in the kingdom of Tribnia, by the natives called Langdon, where I had sojourned some time in my travels, the bulk of the people consist in a manner wholly of discoverers, witnesses, informers, accusers, prosecutors, evidences, swearers, together with their several subservient and subaltern instruments, all under the colours, the conduct, and the pay of ministers of state, and their deputies. The plots, in that kingdom, are usually the workmanship of those persons who desire to raise their own characters of profound politicians; to restore new vigour to a crazy administration; to stifle or divert general discontents; to fill their coffers with forfeitures; and raise, or sink the opinion of public credit, as either shall best answer their private advantage. It is first agreed and settled among them, what suspected persons shall be accused of a plot; then, effectual care is taken to secure all their letters and papers, and put the owners in chains. These papers are delivered to a set of artists, very dexterous in finding out the mysterious meanings of words, syllables, and letters: for instance, they can discover a close stool, to signify a privy council; a flock of geese, a senate; a lame dog, an invader; the plague, a standing army; a buzzard, a prime minister; the gout, a high priest; a gibbet, a secretary of state; a chamber pot, a committee of grandees; a sieve, a court lady; a broom, a revolution; a mouse-trap, an employment; a bottomless pit, a treasury; a sink, a court; a cap and bells, a favourite; a broken reed, a court of justice; an empty tun, a general; a running sore, the administration.

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