barbed wire
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of barbed wire
First recorded in 1860–65
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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.
Surveillance camera footage captured Mott scaling an 8-foot fence topped with barbed wire at the perimeter of the airport in just 15 seconds, then walking across the runway.
From Los Angeles Times • May 13, 2026
The group - consisting of about eight to ten tourists - reached the ground and made their way to the edge of the site, which was surrounded by a barbed wire fence.
From BBC • Apr. 25, 2026
On opposite sides of the makeshift barricade, fronted by coils of barbed wire, Cambodians lamented their lost homes and livelihoods as Thailand's military showed off its gains.
From Barron's • Feb. 7, 2026
The O’Smach building in which they were held was surrounded by high corrugated iron walls topped with barbed wire.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 23, 2025
They passed the electrical fence topped with coiled barbed wire, the wooden barracks, the guard towers, and a redbrick building with huge chimneys.
From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
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.
