BARREN • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Barren

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/bˈærən/ /bˈɛrən/ Listen

adjective

Barren adj.

1.

Incapable of producing offspring; producing no young; sterile; said of women and female animals. "She was barren of children."

2.

Not producing vegetation, or useful vegetation; sterile. "Barren mountain tracts."

3.

Unproductive; fruitless; unprofitable; empty. "Brilliant but barren reveries." "Some schemes will appear barren of hints and matter."

4.

Mentally dull; stupid.

Barren flower, a flower which has only stamens without a pistil, or which has neither stamens nor pistils.

Barren Grounds (Geog.), a vast tract in British America northward of the forest regions.

Barren Ground bear (Zool.), a peculiar bear, inhabiting the Barren Grounds, now believed to be a variety of the brown bear of Europe.

Barren Ground caribou (Zool.), a small reindeer (Rangifer Groenlandicus) peculiar to the Barren Grounds and Greenland.

noun

Barren 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.)

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Etymology of 'Barren'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Barren" Quotes from Famous Books

... seas—Amelia's love sails with him. He wanders through pathless, sandy deserts—Amelia's love clothes the burning sand with verdure, and the barren shrubs with flowers. Southern suits scorch his bare head, northern snows pinch his feet, tempestuous hail beats down on his temples, but Amelia's love lulls him to sleep in the midst of the storm. Seas, and mountains, ...

— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller

... or a vassal; I would delve the earth and lead a humble life, but lead it in my own way, and thank God for the freedom of it; choose my own comrades; live as I list, where I list; love as I list, where I list, and die when God pleases with the knowledge that my life had not been altogether barren. And that poor girl, Fanfulla! Think of her. She is to be joined in loveless union to such a gross, unfeeling clod as Gian Maria. Have ...

— Love-at-Arms • Raphael Sabatini

... extraordinary splendour. September rains after a dry summer washed the air and filled the tarns and becks. Wherever she went she was accompanied by that most delicious sound of falling waters. The clouds, which through July and August had been nothing but undefined, barren vapour, gathered themselves together and the interspaces of sky were once more brilliantly blue. Day after day earth and heaven were almost too beautiful, for it was painful that her finite apprehension should be unequal to such infinite loveliness. ...

— More Pages from a Journal • Mark Rutherford

... cutting in two the blue dome of the sky. Still farther on, they came upon stretches of straggling wild peach, olive, and lemon trees. Beyond again, tangles of hawthorn were interspersed with patches of dried weeds and grass. But as they neared the mining district the soil was bleak and barren. The mountain rivers were dry, and their beds made yawning gaps as though the earth had violently shuddered ...

— The Title Market • Emily Post

... half afraid and half delighted to be abroad so late alone, everybody and everything was in harmony with the hour and scene. Suddenly there fluttered into the car a snowy moth, astray from some flower garden in the country and quite bewildered and lost in the barren city. The beautiful creature fluttered into a lady's face and she screamed and struggled as though attacked by a rabid beast. "Oh, kill it! kill the horrid thing," she cried, while her attendant beat the air with his cane and ...

— A String of Amber Beads • Martha Everts Holden

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