barren

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.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbæɹən/

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• Rhymes: -æɹən
• Homophone: baron

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

1. (not comparable) Unable to bear children; sterile.
   • 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 606515358, (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.

   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?

2. Of poor fertility, infertile; not producing vegetation.
   • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 1, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, OCLC 1069526323:

     barren mountain tracts

   • 2009, Y.J. Zhu, “Taklamakan Desert Moon Ride”, in Lucy McCauley, editor, The Best Women's Travel Writing 2009: True Stories from Around the World (Travelers' Tales)‎, →ISBN, ISSN 1553-054X, OCLC 234438230, OL 23120660M, page 154:

     We have descended Tian Shan and entered the Taklamakan Desert, a barren landscape painted in ecru—no shrubs, no grass, only waves upon waves of naked ridges the color of buff, the highest few spotted with white specks of snow.

   • 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:

     The druids […] believed that mistletoe could make barren animals fecund, and that it was an antidote to all poisons.

3. 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.

4. Unproductive; fruitless; unprofitable; empty.
   • Augusr 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.

   • 1843, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Conquest of Mexico, […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Harper and Brothers, […], OCLC 645131689:

     brilliant but barren reveries

   • 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.

   • 2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, OCLC 1261299044, PC, scene: Technology: Terraforming Codex entry:

     Terraforming even a barren planet often involves significant financial and ethical hurdles.

5. Mentally dull; stupid.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene ii]:

     Set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too.

• sterile
• fruitless

• fertile
• fruitful

• barren-ground caribou

barren (plural barrens)

1. An area of low fertility and habitation, a desolate place.

   The pine barrens are a site lonely enough to suit any hermit.

• Barner

• IPA^(key): /baren/, [ba.rẽ̞n]

barren (comparative barrenago, superlative barrenen, excessive barrenegi)

1. deep

barren inan

1. interior
2. guts, stomach
3. (figurative) soul, spirit

barren

1. A particle used to give certainty or emphasis.

   Jada dakit barren! ― I already know that!

• "barren" in Euskaltzaindiaren Hiztegia [Dictionary of the Basque Academy], euskaltzaindia.eus
• “barren” in Orotariko Euskal Hiztegia [General Basque Dictionary], euskaltzaindia.eus

barren

1. third-person plural present indicative form of barrar

barren

1. Alternative form of bareyne

barren m

1. definite singular of barre

barren m

1. definite singular of barre

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

barren

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

barren

1. definite singular of barr.
2. definite plural of barr