Crossword clues for hogshead
hogshead
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Hogshead \Hogs"head\, n. [D. okshoofd; akin to Sw. oxhufvud, Dan. oxehoved, G. oxhoft; apparently meaning orig., ox head, but it is not known why this name was given. Cf. Ox, Head.]
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An English measure of capacity, containing 63 wine gallons, or about 521/2 imperial gallons; a half pipe.
Note: The London hogshead of beer was 54 beer gallons, the London hogshead of ale was 48 ale gallons. Elsewhere in England the ale and beer hogsheads held 51 gallons. These measures are no longer in use, except for cider.
A large cask or barrel, of indefinite contents; esp. one containing from 100 to 140 gallons. [U. S.]
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"large cask or barrel," late 14c., presumably on some perceived resemblance. The original liquid measure was 63 old wine gallons (by a statute of 1423); later anywhere from 100 to 140 gallons. Borrowed into other Germanic languages, oddly, as ox-head (Dutch okshoofd, German oxhoft, Swedish oxhufvud).
Wiktionary
n. 1 An English measure of capacity for liquids, containing 63 wine gallons, or about 52 1/2 imperial gallons; a half pipe. 2 A large cask or barrel, of indefinite contents; especially one containing from 100 to 140 gallons.
WordNet
n. a British unit of capacity for alcoholic beverages
a large cask especially one holding 63 gals
Wikipedia
A hogshead (abbreviated "Hhd", plural "Hhds") is a large cask of liquid (or, less often, of a food commodity). More specifically, it refers to a specified volume, measured in either imperial or US customary measures, primarily applied to alcoholic beverages, such as wine, ale, or cider.
A tobacco hogshead was used in British and American colonial times to transport and store tobacco. It was a very large wooden barrel. A standardized hogshead measured long and in diameter at the head (at least , depending on the width in the middle). Fully packed with tobacco, it weighed about .
A wine hogshead contains about .
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) notes that the hogshead was first standardized by an act of Parliament in 1423, though the standards continued to vary by locality and content. For example, the OED cites an 1897 edition of Whitaker's Almanack, which specified the number of gallons of wine in a hogshead varying by type of wine: claret (presumably) , port , sherry ; and Madeira . The American Heritage Dictionary claims that a hogshead can consist of anything from (presumably) .
Eventually, a hogshead of wine came to be , while a hogshead of beer or ale is 54 gallons (250 L if old beer/ale gallons, 245 L if imperial).
A hogshead was also used as unit of measurement for sugar in Louisiana for most of the 19th century. Plantations were listed in sugar schedules as having produced x number of hogsheads of sugar or molasses. A hogshead was also used for the measurement of herring fished for sardines in Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick.
The etymology of hogshead is uncertain. According to English philologist Walter William Skeat (1835–1912), the origin is to be found in the name for a cask or liquid measure appearing in various forms in several Germanic languages, in Dutch oxhooft (modern okshoofd), Danish oxehoved, Old Swedish oxhufvod, etc. The word should therefore be "oxhead", "hogshead" being a mere corruption. It has been suggested that the name arose from the branding of such a measure with the head of an ox.
Usage examples of "hogshead".
Instead they laboured to bring aboard water, firewood, hogsheads of beer, rum, and lime juice, and cases of wine.
A hogshead of ale was abroach under an oak, and a fire was blazing in an open space before the trees to roast the fat deer which the foresters brought.
Jamie had planned on visits only to the two Cherokee villages closest to the Treaty Line, there to announce his new position, distribute modest gifts of whisky and tobaccothis last hastily borrowed from Tom Christie, who had fortunately purchased a hogshead of the weed on a seed-buying trip to Cross Creekand inform the Cherokee that further largesse might be expected when he undertook ambassage to the more distant villages in the autumn.
And so six times a day all traffic on the carriageway was forced to halt for twenty minutes while that beneath floated through on the tide: hoys and shallops headed upstream with loads of malt and dried haddock, bumboats and pinnaces going downstream with hogsheads of ale and sugar for the merchantmen at Tower Dock, sometimes even the yacht of the King himself on its way to the races at Greenwich, masts swaying and sails crackling.
The hogshead was even come to the hauncing, and nothing could be drawne from him but the dregs.
We need ten thousand sedant of grain, at least fourteen hundred sedant of fruit, four thousand sedant of salted meat, and at least seven hogsheads of fresh water.
Lacking spirit by the hogshead, he returned to his saddlebag and got a bottle of his own also smuggled, but confiscated almost legally which he splashed freely down the rough wood of the wall.
Abdul tried to press Boron to tell them more about the Earthly Paradise, but Boron had abused the hogsheads of Les Trois Chandeliers, and said he could no longer remember anything.
If they sent a hogshead of tobacco or a barrel of salt fish to another country by any but an English or a colonial built bessel, they were legally liable to forfeith their goods.
A run was then made to Charlottetown, Granada, where the collection was discharged, cleaned and packed in hogsheads all ready for the first boat that would call, bound for New York.
Elsewhere were stacked hogsheads and barrels of pickled vegetables and pickled or salted meats, stone crocks of salt or honey, stone jugs of brandy and cordials, kegs of oil and, near the stairs leading to the upper cellar, several ironbound caskets secured with huge padlocks.
The truckman stood behind and shoved, after putting a couple of ropes, one round each end of the hogshead, while two men standing in the depot steadily pulled at the ropes.
Behind the hogshead, on a half circle of kegs, boxes, and rude settles, sat Aylward, John, Black Simon and three or four other leading men of the archers, together with Goodwin Hawtayne, the master-shipman, who had left his yellow cog in the river to have a last rouse with his friends of the Company.
Newport received but four bushels of corn when he should have had twenty hogsheads.
Vinegar in hogsheads was named on the food-list of every ship of the Pilgrim era.