Rolls : nm Un tonneau is a large cylindrical container, made of wood, swelling in the middle, made of moats assembled and circled, closed by two wooden bottoms, invented by the Gauls.
Of the same barrel: of the same kind; the same thing. It's from the same barrel.
They are people of the same barrel: of the same caliber.
Name of a barrel! (interjection of astonishment).
It is the barrel of the Danaids, an endless, interminable task.
Letting your barrel escape: to die (slang of the wine merchants).
Accident in which an automobile makes a complete revolution while pivoting about its longitudinal axis. The car rolled over several times.
Stay in the barrel: stay on the sidelines (sport jargon).
To be of a good barrel: to be grotesque, ridiculous.
To be of a strong barrel: to be very stupid.
Drunken barrel: drunkard.
Rolls
The phrase "The Barrel of the Danaids": A never-ending task, a job to be started over and over again - A bank account constantly emptied of its contents by someone very spending.
The story behind the expression goes back to Greek mythology. Two brothers, Egyptos and Danaos, had one fifty boys, the second fifty girls. Following a quarrel with his brother, Danaos flees with his numerous offspring in Argolis.
Once arrived, they are joined by the sons of Egyptos, who ask their cousins in marriage.
The father pretends to accept but asks each of his daughters to kill her husband on the wedding night. All accept, except Hypermnestre married to Lyncée who, later, will take charge of killing her stepfather and his forty-nine cousins who have remarried. Given their mischief, these ladies could only be sent to hell. And it is in this charming resort that, as a punishment, they were given the mission of endlessly filling a barrel with a pierced bottom.
This expression appeared in the XNUMXth century.
If its first meaning is obvious, given the end of the story, the second is to be compared to the denomination of the pierced basket that is assigned to a person who is too spending a lot.