Over a Barrel

An American phrase first documented in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in June 1890. The leading theory ties it to the old practice of draping someone face-down over a barrel as a form of flogging or physical discipline, a position that leaves a person genuinely helpless either way. A rival theory connects it to resuscitating a near-drowning victim by rolling them over a barrel to clear water from their lungs, but this doesn't fit the sense of being under someone else's power quite as well. A commonly repeated claim that it comes from naval flogging punishments doesn't hold up either: navies of the period used a grating for that purpose, not a barrel.