Meaning

3 senses

  1. (UK)A varying measure of capacity, usually being a quarter of a barrel; specifically, a measure equal to nine imperial gallons.

    a British unit of capacity equal to 9 imperial gallons

  2. (US)A small wooden vessel or cask of indeterminate size, used for butter, lard, etc.

    a small wooden keg

  3. A measurement for the mass of butter, equalling 56 pounds.

Examples

1 sentences

  1. I had in my cellar a firkin of potatoes.

    remline · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FR · C2Open on TatoebaReport a problem

Origin

From Middle Dutch *vierdekijn, diminutive of vierde (“fourth”), from vier (“four”); equiva

From Middle Dutch *vierdekijn, diminutive of vierde (“fourth”), from vier (“four”); equivalent to fourth + -kin.

Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source

Forms

plural: firkins
Singularfirkin
Pluralfirkins

regular

See also

neighbours in the dictionary
firewallC1firewoodfireworkB1firmB1

Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.

firkin — meaning, examples, forms, synonyms | Krumeto