in the barrel
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Attested 1950s.[1][2][3] Presumably from a bawdy military joke, featuring a barrel with a glory hole, whose punchline is “It’s your turn in the barrel.”[4]
The joke has many variants and embellishments, but the kernel is:[5] a new sailor is being given a tour of the boat, and is shown a barrel with a glory hole, which they are able to use any time, except Tuesdays. When he asks why not Tuesdays, he is told: “Because it’s your turn in the barrel.”
Other hypotheses is that it is derived from like shooting fish in a barrel, or that it referred to a form of punishment in which the malefactor was confined within a barrel.
Prepositional phrase[edit]
- (slang) In an unpleasant or dangerous situation.
- 1967, Aerospace Safety, volume 23, number 2, page i:
- It’s Your Turn In The Barrel: accident investigation duty
- 2005, Leon Wagener, One Giant Leap: Neil Armstrong's Stellar American Journey:
- Reluctantly, Armstrong began spending more and more “time in the barrel,” as the astronauts called the frequent public appearances that were considered an important part of the job, because it was believed by NASA brass the only way to keep Congress passing billion-dollar budgets was to keep the public firmly in their corner.
- 2006, Mark Ethridge, Grievances, page 64:
- Staffers rotated on and off the committee and, as it happened, this month I was in the barrel along with three others.
- 2009, Mark Sullivan, Triple Cross, page 198:
- Connor took aim out the window saying "We voted him guilty, Hailey. We helped put him in the barrel and we're the only ones who can stop it. We have to.”
- 2014, Ronald L. Davis, John Ford: Hollywood's Old Master:
- Practically everybody who worked for the director, including his closest friends, spent time “in the barrel.” “We'd all get our turn,” Andy Devine said. Actors tolerated Ford's abuse because they loved him, understood him, or knew he could draw a better performance from them than could any other director in Hollywood.
- Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see in, barrel.
Usage notes[edit]
Frequently used in the form “your turn in the barrel”, as in the form in the joke. Despite the presumed vulgar origins, the phrase is in common use without this intention, though this can have vulgar connotations to some listeners.[4]
References[edit]
- ^ “"it's my turn in the barrel"”, in alt.usage.english[1] (Usenet), 1997 January 17
- ^ “(one's) turn in the barrel”, in The Online Slang Dictionary[2], 2011-08-26
- ^ The Goon Show, “The Affair of the Lone Banana”, Series 5, Episode 5. First broadcast on October 26, 1954. Script by Spike Milligan. “The Affair of the Lone Banana”, in The Goon Show Site[3], 2020 April 13 (last accessed), archived from the original on 22 May 2013, “I just remembered it’s my turn in the barrel”.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Safire, William (2002 March 31) “On Language”, in The New York Times Magazine[4], “… I had written that it was somebody’s “turn in the barrel,” forgetting that the phrase originated in the punch line of a dirty joke. I apologize for blanking out on that; the phrase seems to have crossed into general usage from its sexual origin, …”
- ^ “Where does the phrase, "Its your turn in the barrel" come from?”, in The Straight Dope[5], (Can we date this quote?)