barb

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See also: Barb and Barb.

English

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /bɑː(ɹ)b/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)b

Etymology 1

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PIE word
*bʰardʰéh₂
barb (sense 1) of a fishhook
barbs (sense 4) of a feather
cherry barb (sense 5)

From Middle English barbe, from Middle French barbe, from Old French barbe (“beard, beard-like element”). Doublet of beard.

Noun

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barb (plural barbs)

  2. The point that stands backward in an arrow, fishhook, etc., to prevent it from being easily extracted. Hence: Anything which stands out with a sharp point obliquely or crosswise to something else.
  4. (figuratively) A hurtful or disparaging remark.
    to trade barbs
    • 1923, Lucy Maud Montgomery, “Chapter 8”, in Emily of New Moon:
      And she was the only girl in class who did not, sometime through the lesson, get a barb of sarcasm from Miss Brownell, though she made as many mistakes as the rest of them.
    • 2018, Elle Wright, Wherever You Are (The Jacksons of Ann Arbor)‎[1], HarperCollins, →ISBN:
      “Maybe I just wanted to come and see for myself if you were real. Or if you were a figment of my imagination.” The barb hurt, but she didn't blame him.
    • 2022 July 11, Kate Conger, Mike Isaac, “How Elon Musk Damaged Twitter and Left It Worse Off”, in The New York Times‎[2], →ISSN:
      His barbs about fake accounts have weakened trust in Twitter, just as the company prepares to moderate heated political discussions about an upcoming election in Brazil and the midterm elections this fall in the United States, misinformation experts said.
  5. A beard, or that which resembles it, or grows in the place of it.
  7. (ornithology) One of the many side branches of a feather, which collectively constitute the vane.
  9. (ichthyology) Any of various species of freshwater carp-like fish that have barbels and belong to the cyprinid family.
  10. (US) The sciaenid fish Menticirrhus americanus, found along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States.
    Synonyms: Carolina whiting, king whiting, southern kingcroaker, southern kingfish
  11. (botany) A hair or bristle ending in a double hook.
  12. (obsolete) A muffler, worn by nuns and mourners.
  13. Paps, or little projections, of the mucous membrane, which mark the opening of the submaxillary glands under the tongue in horses and cattle. The name is mostly applied when the barbs are inflamed and swollen.
    Synonyms: barbel, barble
  14. (obsolete) A bit for a horse.
  15. A plastic fastener, shaped roughly like a capital I (with serifs), used to attach socks etc. to their packaging.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Verb

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barb (third-person singular simple present barbs, present participle barbing, simple past and past participle barbed)

  1. To furnish with barbs, or with that which will hold or hurt like barbs, as an arrow, fishhook, spear, etc.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 544–546:
      […] for this day will pour down, / If I conjecture aught, no drizzling shower, / But rattling storm of arrows barbed with fire.
    • 1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, IV.iii:
      Undoubtedly—when Ingratitude barbs the Dart of Injury—the wound has double danger in it—
    • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter II, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:
      Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. Indeed, a nail filed sharp is not of much avail as an arrowhead; you must have it barbed, and that was a little beyond our skill.
    • 1944, Emily Carr, “Meg the Worker”, in The House of All Sorts:
      Her coat was a tangled mass, barbed with last year's burs, matted disgustingly with cow dung.
  2. (Nigeria) To cut (hair).
  3. (obsolete) To shave or dress the beard of.
  4. (obsolete) To clip; to mow.
Translations
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Etymology 2

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Clipping of Barbary.

Noun

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barb (plural barbs)

  1. The Barbary horse, a superior breed introduced from Barbary into Spain by the Moors.
    • 1813, Lord Byron, The Giaour, a Fragment of a Turkish Tale, 8th edition, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], for John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 34, lines 699–700:
      Why sends not the Bridegroom his promised gift, / Is his heart more cold, or his barb less swift?
    • 2009 October, Laurent Roustan, “The Horse, Present since the Dawn of Time”, in Alphatrad Internationale, transl., Au Royaume du Cheval: Les Haras Nationaux du Maroc [In the Kingdom of the Horse: The National Studs of Morocco], Souyri, Aveyron, France: Editions Au fil du Temps, →ISBN:
      However, in the last few years, the stud farms in Morocco and elsewhere in the world have rediscovered the qualities of the barb, which, in Berber tradition, remains the king of the "fantasias", a festival that is also becoming fashionable once again.
  2. A blackish or dun variety of pigeon, originally brought from Barbary.

Etymology 3

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Clipping of barbiturate.

Noun

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barb (plural barbs)

  1. (informal, pharmacology) A barbiturate.
    Coordinate term: benzo
    • 1998, Jerry Dorsman, How to Quit Drugs for Good: A Complete Self-Help Guide, New York, NY: Three Rivers Press, →ISBN, page 50:
      The benzos, it turns out, are just as highly addicting as the barbs, but they do have a much lower potential to cause death by overdose. […] The barbs became one of the most widely abused classes of drugs in the 1960s and 1970s.

Etymology 4

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Corruption of bard.

Noun

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barb (plural barbs)

  1. Armor for a horse.
    • 1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 29:
      The defensive armor with the horses of the ancient knights ... These are frequently, though improperly, stiled barbs.
Translations
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Verb

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barb (third-person singular simple present barbs, present participle barbing, simple past and past participle barbed)

  1. To cover a horse in armor.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Catalan

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Inherited from Latin barbus.

Noun

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barb m (plural barbs)

  1. barbel (freshwater fish of the genus Barbus)

Etymology 2

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From Latin varus, influenced by barba (“beard”).

Noun

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barb m (plural barbs)

  1. blackhead (skin blemish)

Further reading

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Manx

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Etymology

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From Old Irish borb (“foolish, rude”).

Adjective

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barb (plural barbey, comparative barbey)

  1. sharp, drastic
  2. cruel, rough

Derived terms

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Noun

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barb m (genitive singular [please provide], plural [please provide])

  1. sharp point, javelin

Mutation

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Manx mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
barb varb marb
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
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