bare
1 Americanadjective
-
barer,
comparative
-
barest
superlative
-
without covering or clothing; naked; nude.
bare legs.
- Synonyms:
- undressed
-
without the usual furnishings, contents, etc..
bare walls.
-
open to view; unconcealed; undisguised.
his bare dislike of neckties.
-
unadorned; bald; plain.
the bare facts.
-
(of cloth) napless or threadbare.
-
scarcely or just sufficient; mere.
the bare necessities of life.
-
Obsolete. with the head uncovered; bareheaded.
verb (used with object)
verb
adjective
-
unclothed; exposed: used esp of a part of the body
-
without the natural, conventional, or usual covering or clothing
a bare tree
-
lacking appropriate furnishings, etc
a bare room
-
unembellished; simple
the bare facts
-
(prenomial) just sufficient; mere
he earned the bare minimum
-
without a weapon or tool
verb
verb
Usage
What else does bare mean? Bare is UK slang for very or lots of.
Synonym Usage
Bare, stark, barren share the sense of lack or absence of something that might be expected. Bare, the least powerful in connotation of the three, means lack of expected or usual coverings, furnishings, or embellishments: bare floor, feet, head. Stark implies extreme severity or desolation and resultant bleakness or dreariness: a stark landscape; a stark, emotionless countenance. Barren carries a strong sense of sterility and oppressive dullness: barren fields; a barren relationship. See mere 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of bare
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English bær; cognate with Old Frisian ber, Dutch baar, Old Saxon, Old High German, German bar, Old Norse berr; akin to Armenian bok “naked,” Lithuanian bãsas, Russian bosóĭ “barefoot”
Explanation
When you kick off your shoes to walk on the beach, you are enjoying the feeling of your bare feet in the warm sand. The adjective bare describes something or someone that is naked or unclothed. Bare can be used in many different ways: to describe the inside of your nearly-empty refrigerator, an uncarpeted floor, or your unadorned, sparsely decorated bedroom. The word bare can also be used as a verb meaning "to uncover or expose." When you reveal deep truths about yourself to another person — imagine confessing your passion for stamp collecting to a girl you like — you "bare your soul."
Vocabulary lists containing bare
Commonly Confused Words, List 1
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"Mother to Son"
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Commonly Confused Words, List 4
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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.
See Examples For:
With little visibility -- battery-powered torches being the only sources of light -- she helped to deliver the babies using her bare hands.
From Barron's ● Aug. 12, 2026
The US actress turned heads in an outfit that showed off her bare bump at the launch of her new film, The End of Oak Street, in Los Angeles on Sunday.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
Related: ‘Her bank accounts were stripped bare by Medicaid’: My late friend had $20,000 in credit-card debt.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 7, 2026
The day was sticky enough that the plastic adhered to my bare shoulder.
From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026
The shrieking brakes set, and live steam singed our bare feet.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
The album’s indictments of America’s failures are no different from his songs like “Pink Houses,” but their messages are barer and nearly impossible to misinterpret.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 12, 2023
"All around me staff are leaving, staff are crying... many people are already voting with their feet and leaving. But of course that just strips the service even barer."
From BBC ● Dec. 5, 2022
Already, the security law has left Hong Kong’s digital spaces — which, during the 2019 protests, became raucous forums for organizing, cheerleading and criticizing the government — significantly barer than before.
From New York Times ● Sep. 17, 2021
A glacier can provide some protection, preserving piles of snow year-round that can even be deployed on barer ski pistes elsewhere on the slopes.
From Reuters ● Aug. 27, 2021
It was scarcely barer or more dingy and dim than the rest of the kirks in country places were in those days; but it was very small, and it had windows only on one side.
From Allison Bain, or, By a Way she knew not by G. H. (George Henry) Edwards
If this familiar-looking advice seems like the barest minimum in modern cybersecurity hygiene, that’s because it is.
From Slate ● Aug. 19, 2026
Pearl diving often relied on the barest necessities: a noseclip, leather finger covers and a basket to gather oysters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
MarketWatch Picks: My Social Security benefits ‘were cut to the barest minimum’ after I retired.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 17, 2026
And survive they did, by the barest of margins, as Marcus Fraser's goal earned a 2-1 aggregate victory over Partick Thistle in the Premiership play-off final, a 1-0 home win on Monday sealing the job.
From BBC ● May 25, 2026
What could I dream of that had the barest possibility of coming true?
From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright
Zohran Mamdani bared his arm in an act of love.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 2, 2026
In a hotly-contested race, teeth were occasionally bared and there was some jostling for position in the closing sprint.
From BBC ● Apr. 19, 2025
Mitch’s cloddish rejection of her is all the more devastating after all that she has courageously bared to him.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 11, 2025
"I bared my life, I went through so much, I dedicated myself to sobriety and God told me that I would be rewarded."
From BBC ● Feb. 2, 2025
His teeth were bared and his clawlike fingernails suddenly became longer and sharper, like talons.
From "Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky" by Kwame Mbalia
Dog owners are baring their teeth on social media after the European Union's top court ruled that pets are not passengers just baggage if they get lost in transit.
From Barron's ● Oct. 17, 2025
By baring these women's realities - and their romantic desires - Latey cemented its place as the "content of its times", producer Metasebia Yoseph tells the BBC.
From BBC ● Apr. 20, 2025
It doesn't feel like a difficult thing to do, or something that feels like I'm baring my soul or anything.
From BBC ● Jan. 24, 2025
“I like to play with my food,” she taunts, baring rows of sharpened, yellowed teeth.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2024
Gwin climbed up to his shoulder, baring his tiny teeth, sharp as splinters of glass, as if he had recognized the hatred in Meggie’s eyes as they rested on his master.
From "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke
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.
