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| a chattering or flighty, light-headed person. |
| a fool or simpleton; ninny. |
- Some people's hogs show better than others, and some judges can't tell a barrow from a gilt.
- They will be the barrow boys quick on their feet and lacking any scruples.
before 900; Middle English berw, beruh, bargh, berg(h), Old English beorg hill, mound; cognate with Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Dutch, Old High German berg mountain, Old Norse bjarg, berg cliff, Armenian berdz height, Welsh bera heap; akin to Avestan bərəz-, bərəzant-, Sanskrit bṛhánt- high. See borough
before 1000; Middle English barowe, baru, Old English bearg; cognate with Old High German barug, Old Norse bǫrgr. Compare bore1, whose meaning is close to the semantics of cutting or splitting (referring to castration)
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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| barrow1 (ˈbærəʊ) | |
| —n | |
| 1. | wheelbarrow See handbarrow |
| 2. | Also called: barrowful the amount contained in or on a barrow |
| 3. | chiefly (Brit) a handcart, typically having two wheels and a canvas roof, used esp by street vendors |
| 4. | dialect (Northern English) concern or business (esp in the phrases that's not my barrow, that's just my barrow) |
| 5. | dialect (Irish), (Scot) into one's barrow suited to one's interests or desires |
| [Old English bearwe; related to Old Norse barar | |
| Barrow (ˈbærəʊ) | |
| —n | |
| 1. | a river in SE Ireland, rising in the Slieve Bloom Mountains and flowing south to Waterford Harbour. Length: about 193 km (120 miles) |
| 2. | Barrow-in-Furness See Barrow Point |
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barrow
barrow
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barrow
in England, ancient burial place covered with a large mound of earth. In Scotland, Ireland, and Wales the equivalent term is cairn. Barrows were constructed in England from Neolithic (c. 4000 BC) until late pre-Christian (c. AD 600) times. Barrows of the Neolithic Period were long and contained the various members of a family or clan, while those of the Early Bronze Age (c. 1900 BC) were round in shape and were used to bury a single important individual, perhaps a chief or clan leader. The bodies were placed in stone or wooden vaults, over which large mounds of soil were heaped. Both types of barrows continued to be used in England until the advent of Christianity. Their sites are most common in the county of Wiltshire.
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