A Bunghole or Bungehole is a hole bored in a liquid-tight barrel to remove contents. The hole is capped with a large cork-like object called a bung

Bung

A bung is truncated cylindrical or conical closure to seal a container, such as a bottle, tube or barrel. Unlike a lid which encloses a container from the outside without displacing the inner volume, a bung is partially inserted inside the container to act as a seal...

. Acceptable usage include other access points that may be capped with alternate materials providing an air or water-tight access to other vessels. For example a bunghole on a combustion chamber can be used to remove slag or add coal. Bungholes can also be utilized to insert and remove sensing probes or equipment like mixers to agitate the contents within a vessel.

Bungholes were first used on wooden barrels, and were typically bored by the purchaser of the barrel using a brace and bit. Bungholes can be bored in either head (end) of a barrel or in one of the staves (side). With the bung removed, a tapered faucet can be attached to aid with dispensing. When barrels full of a commodity were shipped, the recipient would often bore new bungholes of the most suitable size and placement rather than remove the existing bung. Wooden barrels manufactured by specialty firms today usually are bored by the maker with suitable bungholes, since the hobbyists who purchase them for the making of beer

Beer

Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...

, wine

Wine

Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...

, and fermented

Fermentation (food)

Fermentation in food processing typically is the conversion of carbohydrates to alcohols and carbon dioxide or organic acids using yeasts, bacteria, or a combination thereof, under anaerobic conditions. Fermentation in simple terms is the chemical conversion of sugars into ethanol...

 foods often do not have a suitable brace and bit.

Closed-head steel barrels and drums now used for shipment of chemicals and petroleum products have a standardized bunghole arrangement, with one 2" NPT

National pipe thread

National Pipe Thread Tapered Thread is a U.S. standard for tapered threads used on threaded pipes and fittings. The taper rate for all NPT threads is measured by the change of diameter over distance. The angle between the taper and the center axis of the pipe is 1° 47′ 24″...

 and one 3/4" NPT threaded bunghole on opposite sides of the top head. Some steel barrels are also equipped with a 2" threaded bunghole on the side.

Bungholes can be made on the bottom of small boats. The hole would have a small piece of cork (Bunge) in the hole while in use by the owner; when it was not in use the owner would remove the bunge so if unwanted visitors decided to take the boat they would sink. Used mostly in the Renaissance and Middle Ages.

Slang

In the MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

 cartoon series Beavis and Butt-head

Beavis and Butt-Head

Beavis and Butt-head is an American animated television series created by Mike Judge. The series originated from Frog Baseball, a 1992 short film by Judge. After seeing the short, MTV signed Judge to develop the concept. Beavis and Butt-head originally aired from March 8, 1993 to November 28, 1997...

created by Mike Judge

Mike Judge

Michael Craig Judge is an American animator, film director, writer and voice actor, best known as the creator and star of the animated television series Beavis and Butt-head , King of the Hill , and The Goode Family .He also wrote, directed and in some instances produced the films Beavis and...

, the term "bunghole" was popularized as both a personal insult and slang for anus

Anus

The anus is an opening at the opposite end of an animal's digestive tract from the mouth. Its function is to control the expulsion of feces, unwanted semi-solid matter produced during digestion, which, depending on the type of animal, may be one or more of: matter which the animal cannot digest,...

. In his Cornholio persona. Beavis says that he needs "TP (toilet paper) for my bunghole." The two central characters also use the term when referring to one another.