Meaning & use
hogshead
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Meanings
nouncountableold-fashioned
A large barrel used to store and ship wine, beer, tobacco or other goods.
Grammar: Often used with of: a hogshead of wine.
Patterns
- a hogshead of something
The merchant ordered a hogshead of wine from France.
Hogsheads of tobacco were rolled down to the harbor.
The cellar was lined with oak hogsheads.
nouncountableold-fashionedtechnical
An old unit of liquid volume, about 63 US gallons or roughly 238 liters, although the exact size differed by what was measured.
Grammar: A traditional unit, rarely used outside the drinks trade and in historical writing.
Patterns
- a hogshead of beer
A hogshead of cider was enough for the whole village.
The tax was paid per hogshead.
Records show that the inn sold twenty hogsheads of ale a year.
Word forms
| plural | hogsheads |
|---|
Common combinations
- a hogshead of wine
- They shipped a hogshead of wine to the colonies.
- a hogshead of tobacco
- A hogshead of tobacco was loaded onto the ship.
- an oak hogshead
- The whiskey matured in an oak hogshead.
- roll a hogshead
- Two men rolled a hogshead down the ramp.
- hogshead of ale
- The tavern keeper rolled out a hogshead of ale.
Synonyms and how they differ
- barrel
- This is the common general word for a round wooden container and is not tied to a specific size, unlike hogshead.
- cask
- This is a general term for a container for liquids, and hogshead is one particular large type of cask.
- keg
- This is a smaller container, usually metal today, so a hogshead is much larger than a keg.
- butt
- This is an old, larger cask for wine or beer, and it holds more than a hogshead.
Word family
Commonly confused: hogshead or hog's head? hogshead or barrel?
hogshead vs hog's head
A hog's head is literally a pig's head, whereas a hogshead is a large barrel; the spelling is joined and the meaning is different.
hogshead vs barrel
A barrel is a general container, while a hogshead is a larger one of a particular traditional size.
Practice
In the eighteenth century, planters shipped their tobacco across the ocean packed in huge wooden ____.
Choose one answer.
Hogsheads were large barrels, and tobacco was often shipped in them. Bottles, crates and cartons were not the usual way to ship bulk leaf across the ocean.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “hogshead”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.