Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A large glass or plastic bottle, usually encased in a protective basket or crate and often used to hold corrosive liquids.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A demijohn.
  • noun A large globular bottle of green glass, protected by an outside covering consisting either of basketwork or of a wooden box: used chiefly for containing certain acids (such as vitriol or sulphuric acid) and other highly corrosive liquids likely to act chemically upon stoneware.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A large, globular glass bottle, esp. one of green glass, inclosed in basket work or in a box, for protection; -- used commonly for carrying corrosive liquids; as sulphuric acid, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A large, globular glass bottle, especially one of green glass, encased in basket work or in a box and used to hold corrosive liquids.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a large bottle for holding corrosive liquids; usually cushioned in a special container

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Persian qarābah, from Arabic qarrāba, big jug, from qarraba, to bring near, derived stem of qaruba, to be near; see qrb in Semitic roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Persian قرابه (qarrâbeh, qarrâbah).

Support

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Examples

  • · A secondary fermenter - often referred to as the carboy, this should be a glass bottle that can hold at least 1-5 gallons.

    xml's Blinklist.com 2008

  • · A secondary fermenter - often referred to as the carboy, this should be a glass bottle that can hold at least 1-5 gallons.

    xml's Blinklist.com 2008

  • And when, this morning, I saw the steward struggling with a five-gallon carboy of sulphuric acid, I never dreamed the use he intended for it.

    CHAPTER XLIX 2010

  • And even as the liquid flew through the air I knew it for what it was -- undiluted sulphuric acid, two gallons of it from the carboy.

    CHAPTER XLIX 2010

  • I left the shop with flaked maize, Briess 6-row pale malted barley, Briess flaked rye, Weyermann rye malt, a 3-gallon carboy, three packets of Pasteur Champagne yeast, a hydrometer, and a thermometer.

    CHASING the WHITE DOG MAX WATMAN 2010

  • Patrick opened a filing cabinet drawer and removed a full bottle: 200ml beakers made great glasses, there was a carboy of distilled water, and every laboratory had an ice machine.

    Naked Cruelty Colleen McCullough 2010

  • I threw in a package of champagne yeast, air-locked the carboy, and left it.

    CHASING the WHITE DOG MAX WATMAN 2010

  • I left the shop with flaked maize, Briess 6-row pale malted barley, Briess flaked rye, Weyermann rye malt, a 3-gallon carboy, three packets of Pasteur Champagne yeast, a hydrometer, and a thermometer.

    CHASING the WHITE DOG MAX WATMAN 2010

  • I left the shop with flaked maize, Briess 6-row pale malted barley, Briess flaked rye, Weyermann rye malt, a 3-gallon carboy, three packets of Pasteur Champagne yeast, a hydrometer, and a thermometer.

    CHASING the WHITE DOG MAX WATMAN 2010

  • I threw in a package of champagne yeast, air-locked the carboy, and left it.

    CHASING the WHITE DOG MAX WATMAN 2010

Comments

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  • "He corked his valuable flask, observed that he had a couple of carboys of it in the store from which it must be refilled, and went on..."

    --Patrick O'Brian, The Letter of Marque, 56

    February 27, 2008

  • OE suggests it's after the Persian qarabah. what an eggcorn!

    May 18, 2009