barren

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See also: Barren

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English bareyne, from Anglo-Norman baraigne, baraing (“sterile; barren”), of obscure origin; probably from a Germanic language, perhaps Frankish *baʀ (“bare; barren”), from Proto-Germanic *bazaz (“bare”). If so, a doublet of bare.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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barren (comparative barrener or more barren, superlative barrenest or most barren)

  1. (of people and animals, not comparable) Not bearing children, childless; hence also 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?
    • 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
      Forget not, in your speed, Antonius,
      To touch Calpurnia; for our elders say,
      The barren, touched in this holy chase,
      Shake off their sterile curse.
    • 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.
  2. (of plants, not comparable) Not bearing seed or fruit.
  3. (of places) Of poor fertility, infertile; not producing vegetation; desert, waste.
  4. (with of) Devoid, lacking.
    • August 28, 1731, Jonathan Swift, letter to John Gay
      But schemes are perfectly accidental. Some will appear barren of hints and matter, but prove to be fruitful.
  5. Devoid of interest or attraction, poor, bleak.
  6. Unproductive, fruitless, unprofitable; empty, hollow, vain.
    • 1843, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Conquest of Mexico, […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Harper and Brothers, […], →OCLC:
      brilliant but barren reveries
    • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XXI, page 35:
      A third is wroth: ‘Is this an hour
      ⁠For private sorrow’s barren song,
      ⁠When more and more the people throng
      The chairs and thrones of civil power?’
    • 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 270:
      When the entire coast-line becomes a sea of waving palms, with Chinese and Malay villages fringing the shores, which are at present mere barren wastes of mangroves, with plantations of pepper, of gambier, and of tapioca and rice, the Northern Territory, backed up by the unswerving energy of the Australian squatter, miner, and planter, will present a spectacle almost unknown in the scheme of British colonization.
    • 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.
    • 2024 March 20, Ben Jones, “Suppliers' uncertain wait for new trains”, in RAIL, number 1005, page 36:
      As the glut of new orders placed in the optimistic pre-pandemic years (worth billions of pounds) reaches its conclusion, production lines in Newton Aycliffe, Derby and Newport face a potentially barren future - as well as job losses that will be devastating for their communities and supply chains.
  7. Mentally dull or unproductive; stupid or intellectually fallow.

Synonyms

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Antonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Noun

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barren (plural barrens)

  1. An area of low fertility and habitation, a desolate place.
  2. (usually in the plural) In particular, a usually elevated and flat expanse of land that only supports the growth of small trees and shrubs, and sometimes mosses or heathers, berries, and other marshy or moory vegetation, but little agriculture and few people.
    The pine barrens are a site lonely enough to suit any hermit.
    • 1971 [1766], Averil M. Lysaght, Joseph Banks in Newfoundland and Labrador, 1766: His Diary, Manuscripts, and Collections, Univ of California Press, →ISBN, page 121:
      Snow Lies now four & five feet deep upon the Ground & the Air looks so Hazey that we think it Prudent to Return upon the Rocks & Barrens (for so they Call the Places where Wood does not Grow) we find that the wind had drifted the Snow Very thin Here we observe Some few Plants (1) Fir Moss, *Lycopodium Selago, (2) Rhein Deer Moss, Lichen Rangiferinus [Cladonia sp.], (3) A Kind of Horned Liverwort, Lichen, (4) a Plant that has very much the Appearance of Crow Berries, Empetrum [*Empetrum nigrum L.] of which I have only got the female which has 10 Stigmata.
    • 1968 (originally written: 1794), Aaron Thomas, The Newfoundland Journal of Aaron Thomas, page 104:
      Here it was now, by the side of a Swamp in the Barrens of Newfoundland, threadbare, wet, dirty.
    • 1819, Lewis Amadeus Anspach, A History of the Island of Newfoundland: Containing a Description of the Island, the Banks, the Fisheries and Trade of Newfoundland and the Coast of Labrador, page 294:
      What is known of it consists of a rocky and barren soil, steep hills covered with bad wood, some narrow and sandy valleys, extensive plains covered either with heath, or with rocky surfaces, more or less extensive, where not a tree or shrub is to be seen, and which are from thence usually called Barrens.
    • 1843, Joseph Beete Jukes, General Report of the Geological Survey of Newfoundland: Executed Under the Direction of the Government and Legislature of the Colony During the Years 1839 and 1840, page 22:
      The 'barrens' of Newfoundland are those districts which occupy the summits of the hills and ridges, and other elevated and exposed tracts. They are covered with a thin and scrubby vegetation, consisting of berry-bearing plants and dwarf bushes of various species, and are somewhat similar in appearance to the moorlands of the north of England, differing only in the kind of vegetation.
    • 1879, Littell's Living Age, page 362:
      In Newfound-land there are barrens of many miles in extent, high, and, comparatively speaking, dry plateaus; but the barrens in the provinces I am speaking of vary from a little open space of a few acres to a plain of five or six miles […]
    • 1897, Moses Harvey, Newfoundland in 1897, page 150:
      The 'barrens' are covered with a rich carpet of moss of every shade and colour, and abound in all sorts of wild berries, pleasing both to the eye and taste.
    • 1907, Charles Wendell Townsend, Glover Morrill Allen, Birds of Labrador, page 282:
      [...] the Arctic strip extends from the exposed coasts of the outer islands, in onto the mainland for from one to three or four miles as a practically unbroken "barren," sprinkled with lichen-covered ledges and carpeted with turf of reindeer lichen, sphagnum, Empetrum, sedges, creeping willows, and various other species of herbaceous plants, including the following, kindly determined for us by Dr. B. L. Robinson of the Gray herbarium […]
    • 1947, Väinö Tanner, Outlines of the Geography, Life & Customs of Newfoundland-Labrador, page 348:
      No pan is more rugged and inhospitable than these 'barrens,' the vast rolling plateaux of the interior, broken by stunted groups of wind-tom trees Only at the plateaux' edges.
    • 1976, Bernard S. Jackson (Entomologist), Butterflies of Oxen Pond Botanic Park: Their Conservation and Management, page 36:
      Habitat: Bogs, Heaths (known as 'Barrens' in Newfoundland) and rough meadows near boglands. Range In the eastern area: Manitoba eastward; including northern Minnesota to Newfoundland (A.B. Klots).

Derived terms

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Translations

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Anagrams

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Basque

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /baren/ [ba.rẽn]
  • Rhymes: -aren
  • Hyphenation: ba‧rren

Etymology 1

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Adjective

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barren (comparative barrenago, superlative barrenen, excessive barrenegi)

  1. deep
Declension
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Declension of barren (adjective, ending in consonant)
indefinite singular plural
absolutive barren barrena barrenak
ergative barrenek barrenak barrenek
dative barreni barrenari barrenei
genitive barrenen barrenaren barrenen
comitative barrenekin barrenarekin barrenekin
causative barrenengatik barrenarengatik barrenengatik
benefactive barrenentzat barrenarentzat barrenentzat
instrumental barrenez barrenaz barrenez
inessive anim. barrenengan barrenarengan barrenengan
inanim. barrenetan barrenean barrenetan
locative anim. — — —
inanim. barrenetako barreneko barrenetako
allative anim. barrenengana barrenarengana barrenengana
inanim. barrenetara barrenera barrenetara
terminative anim. barrenenganaino barrenarenganaino barrenenganaino
inanim. barrenetaraino barreneraino barrenetaraino
directive anim. barrenenganantz barrenarenganantz barrenenganantz
inanim. barrenetarantz barrenerantz barrenetarantz
destinative anim. barrenenganako barrenarenganako barrenenganako
inanim. barrenetarako barrenerako barrenetarako
ablative anim. barrenengandik barrenarengandik barrenengandik
inanim. barrenetatik barrenetik barrenetatik
partitive barrenik — —
prolative barrentzat — —

Noun

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barren inan

  1. interior
  2. guts, stomach
  3. (figurative) soul, spirit
Declension
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Declension of barren (inanimate, ending in consonant)
indefinite singular plural
absolutive barren barrena barrenak
ergative barrenek barrenak barrenek
dative barreni barrenari barrenei
genitive barrenen barrenaren barrenen
comitative barrenekin barrenarekin barrenekin
causative barrenengatik barrenarengatik barrenengatik
benefactive barrenentzat barrenarentzat barrenentzat
instrumental barrenez barrenaz barrenez
inessive barrenetan barrenean barrenetan
locative barrenetako barreneko barrenetako
allative barrenetara barrenera barrenetara
terminative barrenetaraino barreneraino barrenetaraino
directive barrenetarantz barrenerantz barrenetarantz
destinative barrenetarako barrenerako barrenetarako
ablative barrenetatik barrenetik barrenetatik
partitive barrenik — —
prolative barrentzat — —

Etymology 2

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Particle

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barren

  1. A particle used to give certainty or emphasis.
    Jada dakit barren! ― I already know that!

Further reading

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Catalan

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Verb

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barren

  1. third-person plural present indicative of barrar

Middle English

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Etymology 1

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From Old French barrer.

Alternative forms

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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barren

  1. to bar
Conjugation
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Conjugation of barren (weak in -ed)
infinitive (to) barren, barre
present tense past tense
1st-person singular barre barred
2nd-person singular barrest barredest
3rd-person singular barreth barred
subjunctive singular barre
imperative singular —
plural1 barren, barre barreden, barrede
imperative plural barreth, barre —
participles barrynge, barrende barred, ybarred

1Sometimes used as a formal 2nd-person singular.

Descendants
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  • English: bar
  • Fingallian: bar
References
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Etymology 2

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Adjective

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barren

  1. Alternative form of bareyne

Norwegian Bokmål

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Noun

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barren m

  1. definite singular of barre

Norwegian Nynorsk

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Noun

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barren m

  1. definite singular of barre

Spanish

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈbaren/ [ˈba.rẽn]
  • Rhymes: -aren
  • Syllabification: ba‧rren

Verb

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barren

  1. inflection of barrar:
    1. third-person plural present subjunctive
    2. third-person plural imperative
  2. third-person plural present indicative of barrer

Swedish

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Noun

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barren

  1. definite singular of barr c (“parallel bars”)
  2. definite plural of barr n (“needle”)
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