What does kegs mean?
Kegs is the regular plural of keg and ordinarily refers to small barrels or casks, particularly the cylindrical containers in which beer is held and dispensed. The term is broad enough to include other beverages, but its everyday associations are strongly alcoholic: people talk about tapping a keg, filling kegs, and buying beer by the keg. A keg does not have one universally fixed size; in common US usage, “a keg” can also mean a full half-barrel container, though “half barrel” is more precise. Less common senses include the individual pins used in bowling and, in informal North American English, a person’s buttocks. Because kegs is an inflection rather than a separate lexeme, it appears in plural contexts and takes ordinary count-noun modifiers such as “three,” “fresh,” or “which.” Its historical sense is broader than its familiar modern one: the word derives from an older English term for a compact cask, borrowed from Old Norse, preserving the basic idea of a container long before metal beer kegs became dominant.
noun (plural)Kegs are small barrels or casks, especially the cylindrical containers used to hold and dispense beer. The word is the standard plural of keg.
- Small barrels or casks, especially those used to hold or dispense beer.
- The individual pins used in bowling, especially as a set of ten.
- A person's buttocks, in informal, chiefly North American usage.
"The brewery tapped two kegs of lager for the festival."
"We brought several kegs of beer to the reunion."
"The bowler knocked down the last of the ten kegs with a perfect strike."
The standard regular plural of keg.
"The pub ordered four kegs for the weekend."
In bowling, even a single pin can be called a keg—a surprisingly specialized second life for an ordinary barrel.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of kegs
The word descends from Middle English kegge, borrowed from Old Norse kaggi, meaning “cask” or “small barrel.” Middle English spellings kagge and kegg represent the same inherited word, while the form was later standardized as keg and regularly pluralized as kegs. The precise older Germanic source and the separate history of the bowling sense remain uncertain.
Related word forms
How kegs is actually used
Kegs is a regular count-noun plural and normally refers to multiple containers. Its association with beer is strong, though it can denote other beverages or small casks generally. The senses meaning bowling pins and buttocks are much less common.