Definition of "hogshead"

[...] their vessels for use are made some of clay, of which sort some are so great as that they will containe more then one hogshead of water.

1632, attributed to J. Day, A Pvblication of Gviana’s Plantation: […], London: Printed by William Iones for Thomas Paine, […], page 15

The best Veſſel for Conveyance, (if you carry above 20 Miles) is, a great Tun that holds five Hogſheads; but if no more than 10, 15, or 20 Miles, ordinary Hogſheads will do well enough. I know by Experience you may ſafely carry 300 Carps, ſix and ſeven Inches long, in one Hogſhead; but from ſeven to a Foot, not ſo many by a fourth Part.

1713, [Roger North], “Of Fishing for Carriage”, in A Discourse of Fish and Fish-ponds, […], London: Printed for E[dmund] Curll, […], page 62

Again, by 28 Hen. VIII, cap. 14, it is re-enacted that the tun of wine should contain 252 gallons, a butt of Malmsey 126 gallons, a pipe 126 gallons, a tercian or puncheon 84 gallons, a hogshead 63 gallons, a tierce 41 gallons, a barrel 31½ gallons, a rundlet 18½ gallons.

1882, James E[dwin] Thorold Rogers, “Weights and Measures”, in A History of Agriculture and Prices in England […], volumes IV (1401–1582), Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, page 205

[...] Now the Shippe boaring the Moone with her maine Maſt, and anon ſwallowed with yeſt and froth, as you'ld thruſt a Corke into a hogſhead.

c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene iii], page 289, column 1

[T]he Wind blowing from the Shore, nothing came to Land that Day, but Pieces of Timber, and a Hogſhead which had ſome Brazil Pork in it, but the Salt-water and the Sand had ſpoil'd it.

1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], 3rd edition, London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], published 1719, page 100

I then made another ſign that I wanted Drink. They found by my eating, that a ſmall Quantity would not ſuffice me, and being a moſt ingenious People, they flung up with great dexterity one of their largeſt Hogſheads, then rolled it towards my Hand, and beat out the top; I drank it off at a Draught, which I might well do, for it did not hold half a pint, and taſted like a ſmall Wine of Burgundy, but much more delicious.

1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Gives Some Account of Himself and Family, His First Inducements to Travel. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], part I (A Voyage to Lilliput), page 13

So set me down as one that will refuse to come into your treaty, though you should smoke a hogshead of tobacco over it.

1841, J[ames] Fenimore Cooper, chapter III, in The Deerslayer: A Tale. […], 1st British edition, volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], page 71

As soon as the syrup passes into the coolers, and is met by the air, it grains, and the molasses at once escapes through the sieves into a cistern below. It is then white or loaf sugar of the finest kind—clear, clean, and as white as snow. When cool, it is taken out, packed into hogsheads, and is ready for market.

1853, Solomon Northup, chapter XV, in [David Wilson], editor, Twelve Years a Slave. […], London: Sampson Low, Son & Co.; Auburn, N.Y.: Derby and Miller, pages 212–213

Here is a hogshead of molasses or of brandy directed to John Smith, Cuttingsville, Vermont, some trader among the Green Mountains, who imports for the farmers near his clearing, [...]

1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “Sounds”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, page 346

We knocked the head out of an empty hogshead and hoisted this hogshead to the flat roof of the chapel, where we clamped it down fast, poured in gunpowder till it lay loosely an inch deep on the bottom, then we stood up rockets in the hogshead as thick as they could loosely stand, all the different breeds of rockets there are; [...]

1889, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], “Restoration of the Fountain”, in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, New York, N.Y.: Charles L. Webster & Company, pages 288–289

[T]urning his head he saw, in his own words, something round and enormous, resembling a sixteen-hundred-weight sugar-hogshead wrapped in striped flannelette, up-ended in the middle of the large floor space in the office.

1899 September – 1900 July, Joseph Conrad, chapter V, in Lord Jim: A Tale, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1900, pages 38–39

“[...] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like / Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer, / With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer. [...]”

1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, London: John Lane

With his silly toupee, like the coat of a shaggy poodle, and his tight Continental tailoring, ill suited to his hogshead physique, Mel was a vision of disingenuousness.

1999, Scott Turow, chapter 46, in Personal Injuries, New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 187