Meaning & use
barrel
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Meanings
nouncountable
A large round container with bulging sides and flat ends, traditionally made of wooden staves and used to hold liquids.
Grammar: Countable: a barrel of wine, two barrels of apples.
Patterns
- a barrel of something
- in a barrel
The winery stores its best red wine in oak barrels.
A barrel of rainwater stood beside the shed.
They rolled the heavy barrel down the ramp.
nouncountablebusiness
A unit of volume for oil and some other liquids, about 159 liters or 42 U.S. gallons for crude oil.
Grammar: Often used in prices: oil costs 80 dollars a barrel.
Patterns
- a barrel of oil
- dollars a barrel
The country produces two million barrels of oil a day.
Oil rose to ninety dollars a barrel on Monday.
The tanker carries about a million barrels.
nouncountable
The long metal tube of a gun through which the bullet travels.
Grammar: Countable; often in compounds such as double-barrel shotgun.
Patterns
- the barrel of a gun
- down the barrel
Never look down the barrel of a rifle.
The officer checked that the barrel was clean.
A shotgun has a longer barrel than a pistol.
verbintransitiveinformal
To move very fast and often without proper control.
Grammar: Usually followed by a direction word: barrel down the road.
Patterns
- barrel down something
- barrel along
- barrel into something
A truck came barreling down the hill with its horn blaring.
The kids barreled through the house.
He barreled into the room, late for the meeting.
Word forms
| plural | barrels |
|---|---|
| third person singular | barrels |
| past tense | barreled (UK barrelled) |
| past participle | barreled (UK barrelled) |
| -ing form | barreling (UK barrelling) |
Common combinations
- oak barrel
- The whiskey ages in an oak barrel for ten years.
- rain barrel
- We collect water from the roof in a rain barrel.
- barrel of oil
- A barrel of oil is about 159 liters.
- barrel of laughs
- The trip wasn't exactly a barrel of laughs.
- over a barrel
- The tenant felt she had been put over a barrel by the landlord.
- scrape the bottom of the barrel
- The team is scraping the bottom of the barrel for new players.
Synonyms and how they differ
- cask
- Cask is a similar wooden container, often for wine, beer or spirits, and it can sound more traditional than barrel.
- keg
- A keg is a smaller barrel, usually metal, for beer.
- drum
- A drum is a cylindrical container, often steel, for oil or chemicals, and it has straight rather than bulging sides.
- tube
- For the gun sense, tube is a general word that does not name the specific part the bullet leaves through.
Word family
- barreled adjective
- having a barrel or a certain number of barrels, as in double-barreled
- double-barreled adjective
- having two barrels, as a shotgun, or two parts, as a name
- barrelful noun
- the amount that fills a barrel
- barrelhead noun
- the flat top of a barrel
Commonly confused: barrel or barrow? barrel or baron?
barrel vs barrow
A barrow is a small cart or mound of earth over a grave, while a barrel is a container.
barrel vs baron
A baron is a nobleman or a powerful businessman, and the word is not related to barrels.
Practice
Which meaning of 'barrel' is used in: 'Oil prices fell to 70 dollars a barrel'?
Choose one answer.
In market reports a barrel is a measure of oil, about 159 liters. The wine container and gun tube are physical objects, and the verb sense is about moving fast.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “barrel”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.