Barrel is an old English word for a big holder of liquids, such as petrol, beer, wine or oil.

Japan also took over as the biggest holder of gold, with 61.5 billion ounces in January, up from 35.4 billion at the end of 1986.

Central banks are the biggest holders of gold.

The company's biggest holders are clearly true believers.

It had been one of the savings industry's biggest holders of "junk bonds."

Japanese investors are the biggest international holders of American debt.

Many big holders of Normandy's stock now are hedge funds.

The country will soon release statistics showing it has passed Japan as the biggest holder of foreign currency the world has ever seen.

Such thoughts have led some big holders of brokerage stocks to trim their stakes.

Yes - the so-called emerging markets, led by China and the big oil exporters, are the biggest holders of our sovereign debt.