1
: a round bulging vessel of greater length than breadth that is usually made of staves bound with hoops and has flat ends of equal diameter
2
a
: the amount contained in a barrel
especially
: the amount (such as 31 gallons of fermented beverage or 42 gallons of petroleum) fixed for a certain commodity used as a unit of measure
b
: a great quantity
3
: a drum or cylindrical part: such as
a
: the discharging tube of a gun
b
: the part of a fountain pen or of a pencil containing the ink or lead
c
: a cylindrical or tapering housing containing the optical components of a photographic-lens system and the iris diaphragm
d
: the fuel outlet from the carburetor on a gasoline engine
e
: the flat, cylindrical metal box that encloses the mainspring of a timepiece
4
: the trunk of a quadruped
barreled or barrelled; barreling or barrelling
: to put or pack in a barrel
: to move at a high speed or without hesitation
Synonyms
Noun
- abundance
- basketful
- boatload
- bucket
- bunch
- bundle
- bushel
- carload
- chunk
- deal
- dozen
- fistful
- gobs
- good deal
- heap
- hundred
- lashings [chiefly British]
- lashins
- loads
- lot
- mass
- mess
- mountain
- much
- multiplicity
- myriad
- oodles
- pack
- passel
- peck
- pile
- plateful
- plenitude
- plentitude
- plenty
- pot
- potful
- profusion
- quantity
- raft
- reams
- scads
- sheaf
- shipload
- sight
- slew
- spate
- stack
- store
- ton
- truckload
- volume
- wad
- wealth
- yard
Verb
- belt
- blast
- blaze
- blow
- bolt
- bomb [slang]
- bowl
- breeze
- bundle
- bustle
- buzz
- cannonball
- careen
- career
- chase
- course
- crack (on)
- dash
- drive
- fly
- hare
- hasten
- hie
- highball
- hotfoot (it)
- hump
- hurl
- hurry
- hurtle
- hustle
- jet
- jump
- motor
- nip
- pelt
- race
- ram
- rip
- rocket
- run
- rush
- rustle
- scoot
- scurry
- scuttle
- shoot
- speed
- step
- tear
- travel
- trot
- whirl
- whisk
- zip
- zoom
Examples of barrel in a Sentence
Noun
Oak barrels are used for aging the wine.
The price of oil is over 30 dollars a barrel.
They drank a whole barrel of beer.
the barrel of a gun
Verb
The truck went barreling down Main Street.
She came running out of her office and went barreling past us down the hall.
Recent Examples on the Web
Jonathan Rowe, SPIN, 18 Dec. 2024
Chunks of the Hollywood workforce gone, mostly those in postproduction who are staring down the barrel of potential automation due to labor protections and legal and technological constraints surrounding AI use that protect actors, writers and directors from but not other crew.
—Winston Cho, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 Dec. 2024
Gord Magill, Newsweek, 20 Dec. 2024
Smaller companies and startups have been barreling ahead with every kind of smart lens imaginable.
—Boone Ashworth, WIRED, 20 Dec. 2024
See all Example Sentences for barrel 
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Noun
Happy whales strapped with barrels of coins, supernatural serpentine disco queens.
—Jonathan Rowe, SPIN, 18 Dec. 2024
Chunks of the Hollywood workforce gone, mostly those in postproduction who are staring down the barrel of potential automation due to labor protections and legal and technological constraints surrounding AI use that protect actors, writers and directors from but not other crew.
—Winston Cho, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 Dec. 2024
Verb
Another few storms will barrel into the West Coast this weekend, with meteorologists expecting their impact to stretch further south into California.
—Gord Magill, Newsweek, 20 Dec. 2024
Smaller companies and startups have been barreling ahead with every kind of smart lens imaginable.
—Boone Ashworth, WIRED, 20 Dec. 2024
See all Example Sentences for barrel
Dictionary Entries Near barrel
Cite this Entry
“Barrel.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/barrel. Accessed 30 Dec. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
barrel
2 of 2 verb
barreled or barrelled; barreling or barrelling
: to travel at a high speed
barreling down the highway
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