barrel

Forms

1.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.
2.A solid drum, or a hollow cylinder or case
3.A metallic tube, as of a gun, from which a projectile is discharged.
4.The quantity which constitutes a full barrel: the volume or weight this represents varies by local law and custom.

1.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.
2.To bet consecutively on multiple streets.(slang)
3.To put or to pack in a barrel or barrels.
4.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.

Uncommon· #3554

Etymology tree

Old French barilbor.

Middle English barel

English barrel