What does it mean to dream about barrel?
A barrel usually stands for stored plenty or things kept under pressure, so it helps to ask whether it was full, sealed, or near to bursting.
Four ways to read it
Each reading below comes from a named tradition and a cited source, so you can see where it came from and decide what fits your dream.
Freud
Freud would read the closed cask that holds its contents under pressure as an image of feeling stored and bottled up. A barrel near to bursting can carry the strain of a wish long contained.
After Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams (Brill trans., 1913), public domain.Jung
Jung might see the barrel as a vessel for what has been laid down and left to mature, feeling or memory kept until its time. What it holds can show a part of you stored away and ripening.
Jungian concept (our summary).Modern
Continuity ties a barrel to waking thoughts about reserves, things kept in store, and pressure building up out of sight. A straining barrel often echoes a real sense of something held in that wants release.
Continuity hypothesis (our summary).Mythological
The cask of plenty runs through myth as the vessel of drink that never ran dry at the great feast, a sign of abundance and welcome. To keep such a store was to hold the means of hospitality and cheer.
Rosmerta Publishing editorial synthesis (after Bulfinch; Brewer).