Noun

(en noun)

(countable) 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. Sometimes applied to a similar cylindrical container made of metal, usually called a drum.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Yesterday’s fuel , passage=The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices).}}

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 31 ½ gallons; a barrel of flour is 196 pounds; of beer 31 gallons; of ale 32 gallons; of crude oil 42 gallons.

*

*

A solid drum, or a hollow cylinder or case;

A metallic tube, as of a gun, from which a projectile is discharged.

(archaic) A tube.

(zoology) The hollow basal part of a feather.

(music) The part of a clarinet which connects the mouthpiece and upper joint, and looks rather like a barrel (1).

(surfing) A wave that breaks with a hollow compartment.

A waste receptacle.

The ribs and belly of a horse or pony.

(obsolete) A jar.

* Bible , 1 Kings 17:12, King James Version:

And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel , and a little oil in a cruse:

*:: compare the New International Version:

*::: "As surely as the LORD your God lives," she replied, "I don't have any bread--only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug.

(biology) Any of the dark-staining regions in the somatosensory cortex of rodents, etc., where somatosensory inputs from the contralateral side of the body come in from the thalamus.

Noun

(en noun)

A crowd; a throng; a multitude or great number of people.

* Francis Bacon

a heap of vassals and slaves

* W. Black

He had heaps of friends.

A pile or mass; a collection of things laid in a body, or thrown together so as to form an elevation.

a heap of earth or stones

* Dryden

Huge heaps of slain around the body rise.

A great number or large quantity of things.

* Bishop Burnet

a vast heap , both of places of scripture and quotations

* Robert Louis Stevenson

I have noticed a heap of things in my life.

(computing) A data structure consisting of trees in which each node is greater than all its children.

* {{quote-news

, year=2012 , date=May 9 , author=Jonathan Wilson , title=Europa League: Radamel Falcao's Atlético Madrid rout Athletic Bilbao , work=the Guardian citation , page= , passage=Every break seemed dangerous and Falcao clearly had the beating of Amorebieta. Others, being forced to stretch a foot behind them to control Arda Turan's 34th-minute cross, might simply have lashed a shot on the turn; Falcao, though, twisted back on to his left foot, leaving Amorebieta in a heap , and thumped in an inevitable finish – his 12th goal in 15 European matches this season.}}