bare

¹

[bair]

adjective

barer, barest 

1. without covering or clothing; naked; nude.

   bare legs.

   Synonyms: undressed

2. without the usual furnishings, contents, etc..

   bare walls.

   Synonyms: barren, empty, stark, plain

3. open to view; unconcealed; undisguised.

   his bare dislike of neckties.

4. unadorned; bald; plain.

   the bare facts.

5. (of cloth) napless or threadbare.

6. scarcely or just sufficient; mere.

   the bare necessities of life.

7. Obsolete.,  with the head uncovered; bareheaded.

verb (used with object)

bared, baring 

1. to open to view; reveal or divulge.

   to bare one's arms; to bare damaging new facts.

   Synonyms: expose, uncover

bare

²

[bair]

verb

Archaic.

1. simple past tense of bear.

bare

¹

/ bɛə /

adjective

1. unclothed; exposed: used esp of a part of the body

2. without the natural, conventional, or usual covering or clothing

   a bare tree

3. lacking appropriate furnishings, etc

   a bare room

4. unembellished; simple

   the bare facts

5. (prenomial) just sufficient; mere

   he earned the bare minimum

6. without a weapon or tool

verb

1. (tr) to make bare; uncover; reveal

bare

²

/ bɛə /

verb

1. archaic,  a past tense of bear 1

Other Word Forms

• bareness noun
• barish adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of bare¹

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”

Word History and Origins

Origin of bare¹

Old English bær ; compare Old Norse berr , Old High German bar naked, Old Slavonic bosǔ barefoot

Synonym Study

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.

Example Sentences

King Lear, bearing the brunt of a storm, looks at what he thinks is a mad beggar and wonders if “unaccommodated man” is no more than “a poor, bare, forked animal.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Those two cases laid bare the ugly truth about the backlash to #MeToo.

Read more on Salon

The accident, which saw the picture-postcard 19th-century Gloria tramway hurtle into a building after careering off the rails, shocked the Portuguese capital, laying bare fears over the safety of the popular yet ageing tourist attraction.

Read more on Barron's

Videos from that day show masked men tearing shop fences down with their bare hands as stall owners protested.

Read more on BBC

“It’s the bare minimum, but it’s also one important step,” Moorehead said.

Read more on Barron's

Related Words

• arid 
• barren 
• bleak 
• desolate 
• empty 
• stark 
• vacant 

When To Use

What else does bare mean?

Bare is UK slang for very or lots of.