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Word Study
barren
CIDE DICTIONARY
barren, a. [OE. barein, OF. brehaing, fem. brehaigne, baraigne, F. bréhaigne; of uncertain origin; cf. Arm. brékha, markha, sterile; LL. brana a sterile mare, principally in Aquitanian and Spanish documents; Bisc. barau, baru, fasting.].
- Incapable of producing offspring; producing no young; sterile; -- said of women and female animals. [1913 Webster]"She was barren of children." [1913 Webster]
- Not producing vegetation, or useful vegetation; sterile. Macaulay. [1913 Webster]
- Unproductive; fruitless; unprofitable; empty. [1913 Webster]"Brilliant but barren reveries." [1913 Webster]"Some schemes will appear barren of hints and matter." [1913 Webster]
- Mentally dull; stupid. Shak. [1913 Webster]
barren, n.
- A tract of barren land. [1913 Webster]
- 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. J. Pickering. [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
barren, adj. & n.
--adj. (barrener, barrenest)
1 a unable to bear young. b unable to produce fruit or vegetation.
2 meagre, unprofitable.
3 dull, unstimulating.
4 (foll. by of) lacking in (barren of wit).
--n. a barren tract or tracts of land esp. (in pl.) in N. America.
--adj. (barrener, barrenest)
1 a unable to bear young. b unable to produce fruit or vegetation.
2 meagre, unprofitable.
3 dull, unstimulating.
4 (foll. by of) lacking in (barren of wit).
--n. a barren tract or tracts of land esp. (in pl.) in N. America.
Derivative
barrenly adv. barrenness n.
Etymology
ME f. AF barai(g)ne, OF barhaine etc., of unkn. orig.
THESAURUS
barren
abortive, acarpous, arid, bare, blah, bland, blank, bleached, bleak, bloodless, bootless, celibate, characterless, childless, clear, cold, colorless, counterproductive, dead, depleted, desert, desolate, devoid, dismal, draggy, drained, drearisome, dreary, dried-up, dry, dryasdust, dull, dusty, earthbound, effete, elephantine, empty, etiolated, exhausted, fade, fallow, fatuitous, fatuous, featureless, feckless, flat, fruitless, futile, gainless, gaunt, gelded, heavy, ho-hum, hollow, impotent, impoverished, inadequate, inane, ineffective, ineffectual, inefficacious, inexcitable, infecund, infertile, inoperative, insipid, invalid, irreclaimable, issueless, jejune, leached, leaden, lifeless, literal, low-spirited, menopausal, mundane, nonfertile, nonproducing, nonproductive, nonprolific, nonremunerative, nugacious, nugatory, null, null and void, of no force, otiose, pale, pallid, parched, pedestrian, plodding, pointless, poky, ponderous, poor, profitless, prosaic, prosing, prosy, rewardless, sine prole, slow, solemn, spiritless, staid, sterile, stiff, stodgy, stolid, stuffy, sucked dry, superficial, tasteless, tedious, teemless, unavailing, uncultivable, uncultivated, unfanciful, unfertile, unfruitful, unideal, unimaginative, uninspired, uninventive, unlively, unoriginal, unplowed, unpoetic, unproductive, unprofitable, unprolific, unrelieved, unremunerative, unrewarding, unromantic, unromanticized, unsown, untilled, useless, vacant, vacuous, vain, vapid, virgin, void, waste, wasted, wasteland, white, wild, wilderness, wildness, with nothing inside, without content, without issue, wooden, worn-outROGET THESAURUS
barren
Unproductiveness
N unproductiveness, infertility, sterility, infecundity, masturbation, impotence, unprofitableness, waste, desert, Sahara, wild, wilderness, howling wilderness, unproductive, acarpous, inoperative, barren, addled, infertile, unfertile, unprolific, arid, sterile, unfruitful, infecund, sine prole, fallow, teemless, issueless, fruitless, unprofitable, null and void, of no effect.Absence
N absence, inexistence, nonresidence, absenteeism, nonattendance, alibi, emptiness, void, vacuum, vacuity, vacancy, tabula rasa, exemption, hiatus, lipotype, truant, absentee, nobody, nobody present, nobody on earth, not a soul, ame qui vive, absent, not present, away, nonresident, gone, from home, missing, lost, wanting, omitted, nowhere to be found, inexistence, empty, void, vacant, vacuous, untenanted, unoccupied, uninhabited, tenantless, barren, sterile, desert, deserted, devoid, uninhabitable, without, minus, nowhere, elsewhere, neither here nor there, in default of, sans, behind one's back, the bird has flown, non est inventus, absence makes the heart grow fonder, absent in body but present in spirit, absento nemo ne nocuisse velit, Achilles absent was Achilles still, aux absents les os, briller par son absence, conspicuous by his absence, in the hope to meet shortly again and make our abs.Also see definition of "barren" in Bible Study Dictionaries
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