bbl

B3B3L1
/biː biː ˈɛl/

noun

Volumes of crude oil pumped, stored, or sold (in bulk).

“three 2-bbl carbs”

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Less commonScrabble 7

Meanings

bbl1

nounbbl (plural bbl or bbls)

plural bbls

  1. Abbreviation of barrels and occasionally also of barrel (singular).
    1. especiallymost oftenVolumes of crude oil pumped, stored, or sold (in bulk).

      measured in 1000-bbl units

      2 more examples

      At present prices, cylindrical steel tankage in 55,000-bbl. units costs approximately 73c. per barrel storage.

      1920 May 8, H. T. Carlton, “New design for oil tankage”, in Engineering and Mining Journal, volume 109, number 19, retrieved 05 Mar 2023, page 1079

      The overflush consisted of 100 bbls of uncrosslinked 3000 ppm polymer, followed by one wellbore volume (~150 bbls) plus 450 bbls crude behind pipe.

      1995, Proceedings, International Meeting on Petroleum Engineering, page 63
    2. especiallyBarrels (casks) transported or sold, or the volume that they represent.

      5 bbls. flour

      3 more examples

      Quantity & quality of Beef to be put in a bbl.

      1791 June 16, Government of New Hampshire, “An Act to Regulate the Exportation of Beef and Pork”, in The Laws of the State of New-Hampshire & c., United States: J. Melcher, page 334 (marginal heading)

      […]5 hhds. rum/ 5 bbls. flour/ 1 bbl. sugar/ 9 do. pork/ 1 do. suett/ 3 do. cocoa/ 6 do. peas/ 2 ullage bbls. vinegar[…]

      1815 Niles Weekly Register volume 8, Supplement, p. 152. From an inventory of the frigate Confiance

      4 bbl. vinegar $32.00, 3 bbl. cider part full $6.50

      1881, Ulster County, New York, County Legislature, Minutes of the Board of Supervisors of Ulster County, page 234
    3. internal combustion enginesVenturis in carburetion.

      1-bbl carburetor

      2 more examples

      4-bbl carburetor

      three 2-bbl carbs

      Synonyms: v, V

bbl2

phrase
  1. InternetalternativeAlternative form of BBL.

BBL3

phrase
  1. abbreviationinitialismInitialism of be back later
nounBBL (plural BBLs)

plural BBLs

  1. abbreviationinitialismmedicineInitialism of Brazilian butt lift.

    Traditional BBLs are risky because of the dangers should injected fat end up in blood vessels.

    2024 September 30, Nicola Davis, “What are Brazilian butt lifts, and should they be banned?”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 03 Oct 2024
    3 more examples

    The estimated death rate from fat embolism may be as high as one in 3,000 for BBLs. A 2015 study of deaths from BBL surgery concluded that they probably occur as a result of gluteal blood vessels becoming damaged during the procedure, allowing fat to enter the bloodstream.

    2018 August 29, “Why butt lifts can be so dangerous”, in CNN, archived from the original on 20 Aug 2019

    At an average cost of £3,000 abroad and £8,000 in the UK, the BBL uses liposuction to extract fat from a patient’s thighs to then inject it into their buttocks, but less invasive treatments proliferate.

    2018 November 18, Eva Wiseman, The Observer

    Catera Northup, 20, an exotic dancer from Providence, R.I., and Treneishyia Phillips, 27, from Waynesboro, Georgia, recovered from B.B.L.s at at^([sic]) Enchantress. […] Dream Body Recovery is just one of countless recovery houses that have cropped up in Miami, which has become the heartbeat of the B.B.L. boom in the United States. The average price of a B.B.L. nationwide is around $5,000, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

    2022 May 11, Sandra E. Garcia, “Butt Lifts Are Booming. Healing Is No Joke.”, in The New York Times Magazine, archived from the original on 19 May 2022
  2. Alternative letter-case form of bbl (“barrels”)
proper noun
  1. UKabbreviationhistoricalinitialismball gamesInitialism of British Basketball League.
  2. abbreviationhistoricalinitialismbankingInitialism of Bank Brussels Lambert, now part of the ING Group
  3. Australiaabbreviationinitialismball gamesInitialism of Big Bash League.

Synonyms & antonyms

nounVenturis in carburetion.

Similar

More synonyms by meaning

nounany of various units of capacity

Similar
Broader
United States liquid unitBritish capacity unitImperial capacity unit

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

Often thought to be modified from bl for barrel (b⸺l), reflecting a way of abbreviating that was used especially in previous centuries (compare do for ditto), wherein a doubled letter indicated plural count, as also with p.=page but pp.=pages and l.=line but ll.=lines; this method was used not only in English but also in scholarly New Latin and other modern languages heavily affected thereby, such as with Spanish EE. UU. According to this idea, addition of the suffix -s, as sometimes seen (e.g., 5 bbls or 5 bbls.), would seem to have come from writers who left the unit abbreviation itself unanalyzed (unparsed), thus adding a venially redundant marker of plural, somewhat like with MPGs for miles per gallon. Some sources claim that the abbreviation bbl is from Standard Oil's 42-gallon blue barrels. But this is contested: one source calls this a "persistent oilfield myth" and notes that "the abbreviation 'bbl' had been in use before the 1859 birth of the petroleum industry". Nonetheless, Standard Oil's blue barrels may have helped the bbl abbreviation stick.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Romanian baril
  • barilabbreviation of "barrel"
Cite this entry
APA

bbl. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bbl

MLA

“bbl.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bbl. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bbl,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bbl.

Source: bbl on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.