What does barren mean?we found 7 entries for the meaning of barren
 

Barren -- U.S. County in Kentucky
Population (2000): 38033
Housing Units (2000): 17095
Land area (2000): 490.973907 sq. miles (1271.616528 sq. km)
Water area (2000): 8.955255 sq. miles (23.194002 sq. km)
Total area (2000): 499.929162 sq. miles (1294.810530 sq. km)
Located within: Kentucky (KY), FIPS 21
Location: 36.984455 N, 85.933483 W
Headwords: Barren Barren, KY Barren County Barren County, KY

Source: U.S. Gazetteer Counties (2000)
 

 

Barren \Bar"ren\ (b[a^]r"ren), a. [OE. barein, OF. brehaing, fem. brehaigne, baraigne, F. br['e]haigne; of uncertain origin; cf. Arm. br['e]kha[~n], markha[~n], sterile; LL. brana a sterile mare, principally in Aquitanian and Spanish documents; Bisc. barau, baru, fasting.]

1. Incapable of producing offspring; producing no young; sterile; -- said of women and female animals. [1913 Webster]

She was barren of children. --Bp. Hall. [1913 Webster]

2. Not producing vegetation, or useful vegetation; sterile. "Barren mountain tracts." --Macaulay. [1913 Webster]

3. Unproductive; fruitless; unprofitable; empty. [1913 Webster]

Brilliant but barren reveries. --Prescott. [1913 Webster]

Some schemes will appear barren of hints and matter. --Swift. [1913 Webster]

4. Mentally dull; stupid. --Shak. [1913 Webster]

Barren flower, a flower which has only stamens without a pistil, or which has neither stamens nor pistils.

Barren Grounds (Geog.), a vast tract in British America northward of the forest regions.

Barren Ground bear (Zool.), a peculiar bear, inhabiting the Barren Grounds, now believed to be a variety of the brown bear of Europe.

Barren Ground caribou (Zool.), a small reindeer (Rangifer Gr[oe]nlandicus) peculiar to the Barren Grounds and Greenland. [1913 Webster]

Source: The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
 

 

Barren \Bar"ren\, n.

1. A tract of barren land. [1913 Webster]

2. pl. Elevated lands or plains on which grow small trees, but not timber; as, pine barrens; oak barrens. They are not necessarily sterile, and are often fertile. [Amer.]

--J. Pickering. [1913 Webster]

Source: The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
 

 

160 Moby Thesaurus words for "barren": abortive, acarpous, arid, bare, blah, bland, blank, bleached, bleak, bloodless, bootless, celibate, characterless, childless, clear, cold, colorless, counterproductive, dead, depleted, desert, desolate, devoid, dismal, draggy, drained, drearisome, dreary, dried-up, dry, dryasdust, dull, dusty, earthbound, effete, elephantine, empty, etiolated, exhausted, fade, fallow, fatuitous, fatuous, featureless, feckless, flat, fruitless, futile, gainless, gaunt, gelded, heavy, ho-hum, hollow, impotent, impoverished, inadequate, inane, ineffective, ineffectual, inefficacious, inexcitable, infecund, infertile, inoperative, insipid, invalid, irreclaimable, issueless, jejune, leached, leaden, lifeless, literal, low-spirited, menopausal, mundane, nonfertile, nonproducing, nonproductive, nonprolific, nonremunerative, nugacious, nugatory, null, null and void, of no force, otiose, pale, pallid, parched, pedestrian, plodding, pointless, poky, ponderous, poor, profitless, prosaic, prosing, prosy, rewardless, sine prole, slow, solemn, spiritless, staid, sterile, stiff, stodgy, stolid, stuffy, sucked dry, superficial, tasteless, tedious, teemless, unavailing, uncultivable, uncultivated, unfanciful, unfertile, unfruitful, unideal, unimaginative, uninspired, uninventive, unlively, unoriginal, unplowed, unpoetic, unproductive, unprofitable, unprolific, unrelieved, unremunerative, unrewarding, unromantic, unromanticized, unsown, untilled, useless, vacant, vacuous, vain, vapid, virgin, void, waste, wasted, wasteland, white, wild, wilderness, wildness, with nothing inside, without content, without issue, wooden, worn-out

Source: Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
 

 

barren adj
1: providing no shelter or sustenance; "bare rocky hills"; "barren lands"; "the bleak treeless regions of the high Andes"; "the desolate surface of the moon"; "a stark landscape" [syn: bare, bleak, desolate, stark]
2: not bearing offspring; "a barren woman"; "learned early in his marriage that he was sterile"
3: incapable of sustaining life; "the dead and barren Moon"

noun

an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation; "the barrens of central Africa"; "the trackless wastes of the desert" [syn: waste, wasteland]

Source: WordNet (r) 2.0
 

 

Barren \Bar"ren\, a. [OE. barein, OF. brehaing, fem. brehaigne, baraigne, F. br['e]haigne; of uncertain origin; cf. Arm. br['e]kha[~n], markha[~n], sterile; LL. brana a sterile mare, principally in Aquitanian and Spanish documents; Bisc. barau, baru, fasting.]

1. Incapable of producing offspring; producing no young; sterile; -- said of women and female animals.

She was barren of children. --Bp. Hall.

2. Not producing vegetation, or useful vegetation; ?rile. ``Barren mountain tracts.'' --Macaulay.

3. Unproductive; fruitless; unprofitable; empty.

Brilliant but barren reveries. --Prescott.

Some schemes will appear barren of hints and matter. --Swift.

4. Mentally dull; stupid. --Shak.

Barren flower, a flower which has only stamens without a pistil, or which as neither stamens nor pistils.

Barren Grounds (Geog.), a vast tract in British America northward of the forest regions.

Barren Ground bear (Zo["o]l.), a peculiar bear, inhabiting the Barren Grounds, now believed to be a variety of the brown bear of Europe.

Barren Ground caribou (Zo["o]l.), a small reindeer (Rangifer Gr[oe]nlandicus) peculiar to the Barren Grounds and Greenland.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

 

Barren \Bar"ren\, n.

1. A tract of barren land.

2. pl. Elevated lands or plains on which grow small trees, but not timber; as, pine barrens; oak barrens. They are not necessarily sterile, and are often fertile. [Amer.]

--J. Pickering.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Search for barren @ Ask Jeeves | Google | MSN | Yahoo

Define barren and 150,000 other words at dictionary.net




About Us | Contact Us | Link to Us | Terms of Use
© Dictionary.net  All Rights Reserved