barb








noun

  1. a point or pointed part projecting backward from a main point, as of a fishhook or arrowhead.
  2. an obviously or openly unpleasant or carping remark.
  3. Botany, Zoology. a hooked or sharp bristle.
  4. Ornithology. one of the processes attached to the rachis of a feather.
  5. one of a breed of domestic pigeons, similar to the carriers or homers, having a short, broad bill.
  6. any of numerous, small, Old World cyprinid fishes of the genera Barbus and Puntius, often kept in aquariums.
  7. Usually barbs. Veterinary Pathology. a small protuberance under the tongue in horses and cattle, especially when inflamed and swollen.
  8. Also barbe. a linen covering for the throat and breast, formerly worn by women mourners and now only by some nuns.
  9. Obsolete. a beard.

verb (used with object)

  1. to furnish with a barb or barbs.

noun

  1. one of a breed of horses raised originally in Barbary.

noun Slang.

  1. barbiturate.

noun

  1. a subsidiary point facing in the opposite direction to the main point of a fish-hook, harpoon, arrow, etc, intended to make extraction difficult
  2. any of various pointed parts, as on barbed wire
  3. a cutting remark; gibe
  4. any of the numerous hairlike filaments that form the vane of a feather
  5. a beardlike growth in certain animals
  6. a hooked hair or projection on certain fruits
  7. any small cyprinid fish of the genus Barbus (or Puntius) and related genera, such as B. conchonius (rosy barb)
  8. (usually plural) any of the small fleshy protuberances beneath the tongue in horses and cattle
  9. a white linen cloth forming part of a headdress extending from the chin to the upper chest, originally worn by women in the Middle Ages, now worn by nuns of some orders
  10. obsolete a beard

verb

  1. (tr) to provide with a barb or barbs

noun

  1. a breed of horse of North African origin, similar to the Arab but less spirited

noun

  1. Australian a black kelpieSee kelpie 1

n acronym for (in Britain)

  1. Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board
n.

late 14c., “barb of an arrow,” from Old French barbe (11c.) “beard, beardlike appendage,” from Latin barba “beard,” perhaps cognate with Old English beard (see beard (n.)).

v.

late 15c., “to clip, mow;” see barb (n.). Meaning “to fit or furnish with barbs” is from 1610s. Related: Barbed; barbing.

  1. A sharp point projecting backward, as on the stinger of a bee.
  2. One of the hairlike branches on the shaft of a feather.
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