barrel

«barrel» in Mova's school dictionary: a big round container with a flat top and bottom, usually… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a barrel, barrels); verb (barrel along — informal, to move very fast)

meaning for a pupil

1) A barrel is a big round container with a flat top and bottom, usually made of wood or metal, used to hold liquids or other goods. tree →

2) A barrel is the long tube of a gun, through which the bullet comes out. tree →

3) A barrel is also an amount (for oil it is about 159 litres). tree →

4) To barrel along means to move very fast and without control. tree →

sense in the lessons

In history and stories barrels held water, apples, fish and gunpowder on ships and in shops; pirates hide in barrels. In maths, barrels are often used in capacity problems (a barrel holds so many litres). In everyday life: a water barrel collects rain. Phrases: «a barrel of laughs» (lots of fun), «scrape the bottom of the barrel» (use the worst of what is left), «over a barrel» (in a hard position).

examples

• The pirates rolled a barrel of rum onto the ship. tree →
• We collect rainwater in a barrel for the garden. tree →
• A barrel holds 50 litres, so 4 barrels hold 200 litres. tree →
• Apples were stored in barrels for the winter. tree →
• The truck came barrelling down the hill. tree →
• The party was a barrel of laughs. tree →
• Then they came and rolled the barrel towards the water. tree →

note

Countable: barrels. Double r, one l: barrel. British past: barrelled; American: barreled. A barrel is wider in the middle than at the ends. In maths problems «a barrel» is a unit of how much it holds, so multiply by the number of barrels.

In the corpora

• Big cats play with balls, ropes and barrels, especially young ones, because play trains the moves they need for hunting.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «barrel» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.