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:
Also known as grabblers or hand-fishermen, noodlers use their own bare limbs as bait to catch enormous flathead catfish lurking in Southern and Midwestern rivers, creeks, and lakes.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
The researchers say the register lays bare the breadth of which individuals contributed financially to the slave trade - from monarchs and politicians, to plumbers and clergymen.
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026
Big cheers to Chelsea Handler for taking up a travel etiquette cause we can probably all agree on: bare feet on planes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
Eisenman added, people can practice “skin wetting,” which means keeping as much bare skin continuously damp as possible.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 2026
In my first fleeing step, I trod my bare foot right on that red-hot coal.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
"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
A soul barer and a tireless collaborator, Nate Dogg was the preeminent rap vocalist of the 1990s.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2022
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
Rather than making collective progress on dealing with the virus, the contours of our inability to do so are being laid, somehow, barer.
From Slate ● Jul. 1, 2020
But that autumnal warmth and cosiness is rarely seen in the barer streets of the north.
From The House with the Green Shutters by George Douglas Brown
The Hilltop Youth establish the barest of footholds on open land with temporary lodgings and, in many cases, later build homes and raise families.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026
If this familiar-looking advice seems like the barest minimum in modern cybersecurity hygiene, that’s because it is.
From Slate ● Aug. 19, 2026
Greenspan exhibited a deft touch with financial markets, saying the barest minimum in his statements but seemingly always conveying what traders wanted to hear.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 22, 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
It took the barest second, the softest brush of Nina’s fingertips.
From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo
Behind the squad's pride are raw emotions, which were bared by assistant manager Anthony Barry during his half-time interview with BBC One on Saturday night - conducted when England were 4-0 up.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
The pages capture the inner thoughts of someone who found himself at the center of history, as if Oppenheimer grabbed a pen and bared his soul during the Manhattan Project.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 9, 2026
Four months later, in a halting six-minute address punctuated by deep breaths and stifled sobs, Alex Vesia publicly bared his battered soul.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 13, 2026
"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
Koffi and Adiah skirted around him as he bared his teeth in a grimace.
From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray
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
News reports and social media accounts in Mexico have widely circulated images of U.S. agents in tactical gear facing off against protesters baring Mexican flags.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 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
The joy of reaching the final, and in the manner he did it, was shown by Norrie baring his teeth and shouting his pleasure towards his team.
From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2024
“No, wait—” said Will, before Sir Charles could speak, but Lyra ran around the desk, and from nowhere Pantalaimon was in her arms, a snarling wildcat baring his teeth and hissing at the old man.
From "The Subtle Knife" by Philip Pullman
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.
