barber
noun
a person whose occupation it is to cut and dress the hair of customers, especially men, and to shave or trim the beard.
barber
1 American
[bahr-ber]
/ ˈbɑr bər /
noun
-
barbers
plural
-
a person whose occupation it is to cut and dress the hair of customers, especially men, and to shave or trim the beard.
verb (used with object)
-
barbers,
present (3rd person singular)
-
barbered,
past participle, past
-
barbering
present participle
Barber
2
American
[bahr-ber]
/ ˈbɑr bər /
noun
barber
1
British
/ ˈbɑːbə /
noun
verb
-
to cut the hair of
-
to shave or trim the beard of
Barber
2
British
/ ˈbɑːbə /
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
barbersimple
-
barberssimple
-
have barberedperfect
-
has barberedperfect
-
am barberingprogressive
-
are barberingprogressive
-
is barberingprogressive
-
have been barberingperfect progressive
-
has been barberingperfect progressive
Past
-
barberedsimple
-
had barberedperfect
-
was barberingprogressive
-
were barberingprogressive
-
had been barberingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of barber
1275–1325; Middle English barbour < Anglo-French; Old French barbeor, equivalent to barb ( e ) (< Latin barba beard) + -eor < Latin -ātōr- -ator
Explanation
A barber is a person whose job is cutting hair in a barbershop. Your barber might have a tendency to cut your hair a little shorter than you like. When you visit a barbershop, you sit in a special chair while the barber cuts your hair with scissors or electric clippers. Men are the most common customers of a barber, although women can also get their hair cut by barbers. Barber comes from the Anglo-French word barbour, which is rooted in the Latin word for "beard," barb. Early barbers were certified not only to cut hair, but to perform surgery and dentistry as well.
Vocabulary lists containing barber
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The partnership with the barber was short-lived, however, and when Johnson went to a bank to try to borrow $250 to start a company, he was turned down.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
The teen who filed the lawsuit is now out of custody and working to become a barber.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2026
Jacob Cintrón, a barber and photographer in Knoxville, Tenn., works four days while his wife, Anna, 30, a nurse, works two.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
The promise is that rogue barber shops, vape stores, mini-marts and sweet shops will face thousands of raids.
From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2026
I hadn’t never really took no notice of the cap’n’s mouth afore, but now that I was seeing it clear, I could unna-stand why he didn’t want the barber to cut his moustache down.
From "The Journey of Little Charlie" by Christopher Paul Curtis
“When I was younger, I was told that as you get older, you start caring an awful lot about your dividends,” said Bruce Barber, 79, a retired banker in Horseshoe Bay, Texas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
"It would not surprise me at all if China gets there first," Dr Simeon Barber, a lunar scientist at the Open University, told BBC News.
From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2026
Another paper by Barber and Odean found that the average active investor reliably underperforms the broader market.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 3, 2026
“Travel demand remains strong, and despite higher fuel prices, many people are prioritizing leisure travel during holiday breaks,” said Stacey Barber, Vice President of AAA Travel.
From Barron's ● May 17, 2026
They practiced the Offenbach and the Barber and Mozart’s Twenty-fifth with blank faces.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
Education experts said one possible response to such a scenario is for state legislatures that set licensing requirements to decide some occupations — like barbers and stylists — actually need less training.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
In February last year, the crump of artillery was still distant, but the factories had long since shut down as the city turned into a military camp with restaurants and barbers catering to soldiers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026
Last year, three barbers in Kunar province were jailed for three to five months for breaching the ministry's rules, according to a UN report.
From Barron's ● Feb. 19, 2026
He also got a haircut at a barbers in a township in the capital, Lusaka - to the delight of thousands of people who flocked there as news spread on social media.
From BBC ● Jan. 17, 2026
But he wasn’t just interfering with health care and speaking out against girls’ schools—he was also threatening barbers who offered so-called Western haircuts and destroying music stores.
From "Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Changed the World" by Malala Yousafzai
Trees barbered to resemble incense pots and traditional Yemeni daggers.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 7, 2021
After growing steadily more uncomfortable with the length of my regularly barbered hair, I decided to go for it and cut the mop.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 24, 2020
“I found it exhilarating, depressing, tawdry and moving in almost equal measure. It’s a big American story that rolls across barbered lawns and then leaves you stranded in some all-night Sam’s Club of the soul.”
From New York Times ● Mar. 29, 2018
Coaches who have barbered the rulebook like Edward Scissorhands look upon Calipari with a weird mixture of awe and disdain.
From Slate ● Mar. 16, 2010
Even for the first day, he was almost suspiciously well barbered.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
Oasis Restore was hailed as a "revolution in youth justice", where young offenders were given one-on-one support and trained with workshops, such as catering and barbering.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2025
A T-level in hairdressing, barbering and beauty therapy was due to begin in 2023, but was delayed before eventually being scrapped altogether.
From BBC ● May 10, 2024
Mr Cox said he had "hope of my barber shop or my barbering tools etc being somewhat salvageable", but "the whole room has gone including everything in it".
From BBC ● Dec. 15, 2023
He also took up prison barbering to make money.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 28, 2023
I do not think I ever really hated him until he had that little spell of superiority at lunch—that and when he went through all that barbering.
From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
