(~s, ~ling, ~led)
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
Note: in AM, use '~ing', '~ed'
1.
A ~ is a large, round container for liquids or food.
The wine is aged for almost a year in oak ~s.
N-COUNT
2.
In the oil industry, a ~ is a unit of measurement equal to 159 litres.
In 1989, Kuwait was exporting 1.5 million ~s of oil a day...
Oil prices were closing at $19.76 a ~.
N-COUNT: oft N of n
3.
The ~ of a gun is the tube through which the bullet moves when the gun is fired.
He pushed the ~ of the gun into the other man’s open mouth.
N-COUNT: oft N of n, n N
4.
If a vehicle or person is ~ing in a particular direction, they are moving very quickly in that direction. (mainly AM)
The car was ~ing down the street at a crazy speed.
= career
VERB: V prep/adv
5.
see also pork ~
6.
If you say, for example, that someone moves or buys something lock, stock, and ~, you are emphasizing that they move or buy every part or item of it.
They dug up their New Jersey garden and moved it lock, stock, and ~ back home.
PHRASE: PHR after v emphasis
7.
If you say that someone is scraping the ~, or scraping the bottom of the ~, you disapprove of the fact that they are using or doing something of extremely poor quality. (INFORMAL)
PHRASE: V inflects disapproval