barren
See also: Barren
English
Etymology
From Middle English barein, barain, from Old French baraigne, baraing (“sterile; barren”), of obscure origin; probably from a Germanic language, perhaps Frankish *bar (“bare; barren”), from Proto-Germanic *bazaz (“bare”). More at bare.
Pronunciation
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Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -ærən
- Homophone: baron (in some accents)
Adjective
barren (comparative barrener or more barren, superlative barrenest or most barren)
- (not comparable) Unable to bear children; sterile.
- I silently wept as my daughter's husband rejected her. What would she do now that she was no longer a maiden but also barren?
- Of poor fertility, infertile; not producing vegetation.
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3=Thomas Macaulay
Please see Module:checkparams for help with this warning.(Can we date this quote by Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)- barren mountain tracts
- 2014 December 23, Olivia Judson, “The hemiparasite season [print version: Under the hemiparasite, International New York Times, 24–25 December 2014, p. 7]”, in The New York Times[1]:
- The druids […] believed that mistletoe could make barren animals fecund, and that it was an antidote to all poisons.
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- Bleak.
- 1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./4/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:
- As they turned into Hertford Street they startled a robin from the poet's head on a barren fountain, and he fled away with a cameo note.
- Unproductive; fruitless; unprofitable; empty.
- (Can we date this quote by William H. Prescott and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- brilliant but barren reveries
- (Can we date this quote by Jonathan Swift and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- Some schemes will appear barren of hints and matter.
- 2011 September 2, Phil McNulty, “Bulgaria 0-3 England”, in BBC:
- Rooney had been suffered a barren spell for England with only one goal in 15 games but he was in no mood to ignore the gifts on offer in front of an increasingly subdued Bulgarian support.
- (Can we date this quote by William H. Prescott and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- Mentally dull; stupid.
- 1599-1602, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, III, ii
- Set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too.
- 1599-1602, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, III, ii
Synonyms
Antonyms
Translations
unable to bear children; sterile
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infertile
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bleak
unproductive
Noun
barren (plural barrens)
- An area of low fertility and habitation, a desolate place.
- The pine barrens are a site lonely enough to suit any hermit.
Translations
area of low fertility and habitation, a desolate place
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Anagrams
Basque
Adjective
barren
Catalan
Verb
barren
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Norwegian Bokmål
Noun
barren m
Norwegian Nynorsk
Noun
barren m
Spanish
Pronunciation
Verb
barren
- Second-person plural (ustedes) present indicative form of barrer.
- Third-person plural (ellos, ellas, also used with ustedes?) present indicative form of barrer.
Swedish
Noun
barren
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Germanic languages
- English terms derived from Frankish
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ærən
- English terms with homophones
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- Pages using invalid parameters when calling Template:rfdatek
- Requests for date/Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay
- English terms with quotations
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- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- Basque lemmas
- Basque adjectives
- Catalan non-lemma forms
- Catalan verb forms
- Norwegian Bokmål non-lemma forms
- Norwegian Bokmål noun forms
- Norwegian Nynorsk non-lemma forms
- Norwegian Nynorsk noun forms
- Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Spanish non-lemma forms
- Spanish verb forms
- Spanish forms of verbs ending in -er
- Swedish non-lemma forms
- Swedish noun forms