tar-barrel
(ˈtɑːˌbærəl)
A barrel containing or that has contained tar: esp. as used for making a bonfire; formerly also in the carrying out of capital punishment by burning.
| c 1450 B.M. Add. MS. 10036 (Destr. Jerus. by Vespasian) lf. 24 With bowes schot and with arblast, With tarbarelle and with wilde fyre. 1580 Vestry Bks. (Surtees) 120 Item paid for a tarbarrell at cronation day, vj d. 1685 Lond. Gaz. No. 2080/3 A large Bonfire or high Piramid of Tar⁓barrels, being erected in the said Market place. 1725 Ramsay Gentle Sheph. v. i, Till in a fat tar-barrel Mause [a witch] be burnt. 1850 Carlyle Latter-d. Pamph. i. 2 The European populations everywhere hailed the omen; with shouting and rejoicing, leading-articles and tar-barrels. |
† b. Applied opprobriously to a person. Cf. tar-box b. Obs.
| 1695 Congreve Love for L. iii. vii, If I were a man, you durst not talk at this rate,..you stinking tar-barrel. |