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9 dictionary results for: Barren

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

bar·ren

[bar-uh

n] Pronunciation Key

–adjective

1.	not producing or incapable of producing offspring; sterile: a barren woman.

2.	unproductive; unfruitful: barren land.

3.	without capacity to interest or attract: a barren period in American architecture.

4.	mentally unproductive; dull; stupid.

5.	not producing results; fruitless: a barren effort.

6.	destitute; bereft; lacking (usually fol. by of): barren of tender feelings.

–noun

7.	Usually, barrens. level or slightly rolling land, usually with a sandy soil and few trees, and relatively infertile.

[Origin: 1200–50; ME bareyn(e), barayn(e) < AF barai(gn)e, OF brahaigne (F bréhaigne (of animals) sterile), akin to Sp breña scrubby, uncultivated ground, Upper It barena land along a lagoon covered by high water; appar < Celtic, cf. Welsh braenar, Ir branar fallow land, but derivational details unclear

]

—Related forms

bar·ren·ly, adverb

bar·ren·ness, noun

—Synonyms 1. childless, unprolific, infertile. 2. infertile, depleted, waste. See bare¹. 5. ineffectual, ineffective.

—Antonyms 1–6. fertile.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

bar·ren (bār'ən) Pronunciation Key
adj.

1. Not producing offspring.
2. Incapable of producing offspring.
Lacking vegetation, especially useful vegetation.
Unproductive of results or gains; unprofitable: barren efforts. See Synonyms at futile.
Devoid of something specified: writing barren of insight. See Synonyms at empty.
Lacking in liveliness or interest.

n. A tract of unproductive land, often with a scrubby growth of trees. Often used in the plural.

[Middle English barreine, from Old French brahaigne, perhaps of Germanic origin.]

bar'ren·ly adv., bar'ren·ness n.

(Download Now or Buy the Book)
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
barren

c.1300, from O.Fr. baraigne "barren" (12c.), perhaps originally brahain, of obscure derivation, perhaps from a Gmc. language. Originally used of women in England, of land in France.

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WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

barren
adjective
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]
2.	not bearing offspring; "a barren woman"; "learned early in his marriage that he was sterile"
3.	completely wanting or lacking; "writing barren of insight"; "young recruits destitute of experience"; "innocent of literary merit"; "the sentence was devoid of meaning"
noun
1.	an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation; "the barrens of central Africa"; "the trackless wastes of the desert"

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American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

barren bar·ren (bār'ən)
adj.

Not producing offspring.
Incapable of producing offspring.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

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U.S. Gazetteer - Cite This Source - Share This

Barren Springs, VA Zip code(s): 24313

Barren County, KY (county, FIPS 9) Location: 36.96044 N, 85.92760 W
Population (1990): 34001 (14202 housing units)
Area: 1271.6 sq km (land), 23.3 sq km (water)

U.S. Gazetteer, U.S. Census Bureau

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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

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.

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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

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.

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Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Barren

For a woman to be barren was accounted a severe punishment among the Jews (Gen. 16:2; 30:1-23; 1 Sam. 1:6, 27; Isa. 47:9; 49:21; Luke 1:25). Instances of barrenness are noticed (Gen. 11:30; 25:21; 29:31; Judg. 13:2, 3; Luke 1:7, 36).

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary

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