Bar"rel (?), n.[OE. barel, F. baril, prob. fr. barre bar. Cf. Barricade.] 1. A round vessel or cask, of greater length than breadth, and bulging in the middle, made of staves bound with hoops, and having flat ends or heads.
2. The quantity which constitutes a full barrel. This varies for different articles and also in different places for the same article, being regulated by custom or by law. A barrel of wine is 31½ gallons; a barrel of flour is 196 pounds.
3. A solid drum, or a hollow cylinder or case; as, the barrel of a windlass; the barrel of a watch, within which the spring is coiled.
4. A metallic tube, as of a gun, from which a projectile is discharged.
Knight.
5. A jar. [Obs.]
1 Kings xvii. 12.
6. Zool. The hollow basal part of a feather.
Barrel bulk Com., a measure equal to five cubic feet, used in estimating capacity, as of a vessel for freight.
-- Barrel drain Arch., a drain in the form of a cylindrical tube.
-- Barrel of a boiler, the cylindrical part of a boiler, containing the flues.
-- Barrel of the ear Anat., the tympanum, or tympanic cavity.
-- Barrel organ, an instrument for producing music by the action of a revolving cylinder.
-- Barrel vault. See under Vault.
© Webster 1913.
Bar"rel (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Barreled (), or Barrelled; p. pr. & vb. n. Barreling, or Barrelling.] To put or to pack in a barrel or barrels.
© Webster 1913. | 
