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 highs and lows of vibrant urban life are on display in scenes of a roadside barber and a subway arrest.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
For a couple of years, Trinidad juggled barber college, work at FedEx and missionary work through his L.A. church, Iglesia De Jesucristo.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
A barber is offering free back-to-school haircuts, stationery and school essentials to help families facing rising costs.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
"So, we all started to panic; some people jumped out of windows, and some ran outside," the 31-year-old barber told AFP as he stroked his mother's leg under her hospital blanket.
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 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
"For anybody who studies pathogenic bacteria, it's always in the back of our minds that antibiotics are one of the most important breakthroughs in medicine in the 20th century," Barber said.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 28, 2026
He cut hair at Joe’s Barber Shop in Inglewood when not traveling.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
“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
And BBC Culture's Nicholas Barber branded it "the year's most traumatic film - for parents".
From BBC ● Jun. 17, 2026
Just across the street several men were looking at the line from behind a large side window of the “Lone Star Barber Shop, Eddie Johns, Prop., William Ashe, Mgr.”
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
While many barbers began working from home or their backyards , Hector bought the bus and redesigned it into a mobile barbershop.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
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
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
A beauty salon, including barbers, pedicurists and manicurists, is also on hand, along with a laundry service and dry cleaners.
From BBC ● Feb. 3, 2026
Increasing himself head by head but not barbers.
From "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner
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
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. 19, 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
Behind the gentlemen’s barbered heads, dark mahogany planks stand at attention.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
Education could also extend to training those in hairdressing, barbering and beauty therapy to spot potentially cancerous moles on clients and encourage them to seek medical advice.
From BBC ● May 13, 2026
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
But this was the first time the center had hosted an actual barbering class.
From Seattle Times ● May 10, 2023
The snipping was only a kind of mental barbering, a limbering up.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
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.
