Definitions for: Barren


[n] an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation; "the barrens of central Africa"; "the trackless wastes of the desert"
[adj] incapable of sustaining life; "the dead and barren Moon"
[adj] not bearing offspring; "a barren woman"; "learned early in his marriage that he was sterile"
[adj] not fertile or productive; "a barren tree"; "soil too infertile to sustain real pasture"
[adj] without offspring; "in some societies a barren woman is rejected by her tribesmen"
[adj] 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"



Webster (1913) Definition: 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.


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.

Synonyms: bare, bleak, childless, dead, desolate, infertile, inhospitable, stark, sterile, unfertile, unfruitful, waste, wasteland

See Also: heath, heathland, wild, wilderness

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