Adjacent Words

Tun definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

TUN, n. [L. teneo, to hold; Gr. to stretch.]
1. In a general sense, a large cask; an oblong vessel bulging in the middle, like a pipe or puncheon, and girt with hoops.
2. A certain measure for liquids,as for wine, oil, etc.
3. A quantity of wine, consisting of two pipes or four hogsheads, or 252 gallons. In different countries, the tun differs in quantity.
4. In commerce, the weight of twenty hundreds gross, each hundred consisting of 112 lb = 2240 lb. But by a law of Connecticut, passed June 1827, gross weight is abolished, and a tun is the weight of 2000 lb. It is also a practice in N. York to sell by 2000 lb. to the tun.
5. A certain weight by which the burden of a ship is estimated; as a ship of three hundred tuns, that is, a ship that will carry three hundred times two thousand weight. Forty two cubic feet are allowed to a tun.
6. A certain quantity of timber, consisting of forty solid feet if round, or fifty four feet if square.
7. Proverbially, a large quantity.
8. In burlesque, a drunkard.
9. At the end of names, tun, ton, or don, signifies town, village, or hill.
TUN, v.t. To put into casks.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a large cask especially one holding a volume equivalent to 2 butts or 252 gals

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English tonne, tunne, from Old English & Anglo-French; Old English, from Medieval Latin tunna; Anglo-French tone, tonne, from Medieval Latin Date: before 12th century 1. a large cask especially for wine 2. any of various units of liquid capacity; especially one equal to 252 gallons

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 a large beer or wine cask. 2 a brewer's fermenting-vat. 3 a measure of capacity, equal to 252 wine gallons. --v.tr. (tunned, tunning) store (wine etc.) in a tun. Etymology: OE tunne f. med.L tunna, prob. of Gaulish orig.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Tun Tun, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Tunned; p. pr. & vb. n. Tunning.] To put into tuns, or casks. --Boyle.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Tun Tun, n. [AS. tunne. See Ton a weight.] 1. A large cask; an oblong vessel bulging in the middle, like a pipe or puncheon, and girt with hoops; a wine cask. 2. (Brewing) A fermenting vat. 3. A certain measure for liquids, as for wine, equal to two pipes, four hogsheads, or 252 gallons. In different countries, the tun differs in quantity. 4. (Com.) A weight of 2,240 pounds. See Ton. [R.] 5. An indefinite large quantity. --Shak. A tun of man in thy large bulk is writ. --Dryden. 6. A drunkard; -- so called humorously, or in contempt. 7. (Zo["o]l.) Any shell belonging to Dolium and allied genera; -- called also tun-shell.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. 1. Large cask, hogshead. 2. Two pipes, four hogsheads, 252 gallons. 3. Large quantity. II. v. a. Barrel, cask.