Cylinder vs. Barrel — What's the Difference?

A cylinder (from Greek: κύλινδρος, romanized: kulindros, lit. 'roller', 'tumbler') has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. It is the idealized version of a solid physical tin can having lids on top and bottom.

A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wood or metal hoops.

A solid geometrical figure with straight parallel sides and a circular or oval cross section.

A cylindrical container bulging out in the middle, traditionally made of wooden staves with metal hoops round them

A piston chamber in a steam or internal combustion engine.

A tube forming part of an object such as a gun or a pen

A cylinder-shaped container holding liquefied gas under pressure.

The belly and loins of a four-legged animal such as a horse

A rotating metal roller in a printing press.

Drive or move in a way that is so fast as to almost be out of control

A cylinder seal.

Put into a barrel or barrels

The surface generated by a straight line intersecting and moving along a closed plane curve, the directrix, while remaining parallel to a fixed straight line that is not on or parallel to the plane of the directrix.

A large cylindrical container, usually made of staves bound together with hoops, with a flat top and bottom of equal diameter.

The portion of such a surface bounded by two parallel planes and the regions of the planes bounded by the surface.

The quantity that a barrel with a given or standard capacity will hold.

A solid bounded by two parallel planes and such a surface, especially such a surface having a circle as its directrix.

Abbr. bar. or bbl. or bl. Any of various units of volume or capacity. In the US Customary System it varies, as a liquid measure, from 31 to 42 gallons (117 to 159 liters) as established by law or usage.

A cylindrical container or object.

The thicker portion of a baseball bat, from which the most powerful hits are struck.

The chamber in which a piston of a reciprocating engine moves.

The cylindrical part of a firearm through which the bullet travels.

The chamber of a pump from which fluid is expelled by a piston.

A cylinder that contains a movable piston.

The rotating chamber of a revolver that holds the cartridges.

The drum of a capstan.

Any of several rotating parts in a printing press, especially one that carries the paper.

The cylinder within the mechanism of a timepiece that contains the mainspring.

(Archaeology)A cylindrical stone or clay object with an engraved design or inscription.

The trunk of a quadruped animal, such as a horse or cow.

(geometry) A surface created by projecting a closed two-dimensional curve along an axis intersecting the plane of the curve. Category:en:Surfaces

The tubular space inside a wave when it is breaking.

(geometry) A solid figure bounded by a cylinder and two parallel planes intersecting the cylinder.

(Informal) A large quantity

Any object in the form of a circular cylinder.

(Slang) An act or instance of moving rapidly, often recklessly, in a motor vehicle.

A cylindrical cavity or chamber in a mechanism, such as the counterpart to a piston found in a piston-driven engine.

Resembling or similar to a barrel, as in shape

(automotive) The space in which a piston travels inside a reciprocating engine or pump.

To put or pack in a barrel.

A container in the form of a cylinder with rounded ends for storing pressurized gas; a gas cylinder.

To move or progress rapidly

An early form of phonograph recording, made on a wax cylinder.

(countable) A round (cylindrical) vessel, such as a cask, of greater length than breadth, and bulging in the middle, made of staves bound with hoops, and having flat ends (head). Sometimes applied to a similar cylindrical container made of metal, usually called a drum.

The part of a revolver that contains chambers for the cartridges.

Such a cask of a certain size, holding one-eighth of what a tun#Noun holds. (See a diagram comparing cask sizes.)

(computing) The corresponding tracks on a vertical arrangement of disks in a disk drive considered as a unit of data capacity.

The quantity which constitutes a full barrel: the volume or weight this represents varies by local law and custom.

(transitive) To calender; to press (paper, etc.) between rollers to make it glossy.

A solid drum, or a hollow cylinder or case

A solid body which may be generated by the rotation of a parallelogram round one its sides; or a body of rollerlike form, of which the longitudinal section is oblong, and the cross section is circular.

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

Any hollow body of cylindrical form

(television) A ceiling-mounted tube from which lights are suspended.

The revolving square prism carrying the cards in a Jacquard loom.

(archaic) A tube.

A cylindrical container for oxygen or compressed air

(zoology) The hollow basal part of a feather.

A solid bounded by a cylindrical surface and two parallel planes (the bases)

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

A surface generated by rotating a parallel line around a fixed line

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

A chamber within which piston moves

A waste receptacle.

The ribs and belly of a horse or pony.

(obsolete) A jar.

(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.

(baseball) A statistic derived from launch angle and exit velocity of a ball hit in play.

(transitive) To put or to pack in a barrel or barrels.

(intransitive) To move quickly or in an uncontrolled manner.

(intransitive) To assume the shape of a barrel; specifically, of the image on a computer display, television, etc., to exhibit barrel distortion, where the sides bulge outwards.

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; as, a cracker barrel. Sometimes applied to a similar cylindrical container made of metal, usually called a drum.

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.

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.

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

A jar.

The hollow basal part of a feather.

To put or to pack in a barrel or barrels.

A tube through which a bullet travels when a gun is fired

A cylindrical container that holds liquids

A bulging cylindrical shape; hollow with flat ends

The quantity that a barrel (of any size) will hold

Any of various units of capacity;

Put in barrels