bare

¹ American  

[bair] / bɛər /

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.

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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 American  

[bair] / bɛər /

verb

Archaic.

1. simple past tense of bear.

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bare ¹ British  

/ 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

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verb

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

bare ² British  

/ bɛə /

verb

1. archaic a past tense of bear 1

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Usage

What else does bare mean? Bare is UK slang for very or lots of.

Related Words

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

• bareness noun
• barish adjective

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”

Example Sentences

Without current data, millions of urban migrants - often in informal jobs and housing - remain poorly captured in policy design, a gap laid bare during the pandemic.

From BBC

Miners were using picks, shovels and bare hands to unearth rocks rich with metal.

From The Wall Street Journal

That might sound like the bare minimum, but as he scoured around for the ideal spot, the former international found many were tailored for NFL, basketball or baseball teams.

From BBC

We stepped through an opening in the bush line and entered the back paths, following the bare earth created by generations of rez feet, doing the cross-lots drift.

From Literature

Brickbane, the Usher before, had decorated much differently: the walls and ceiling bare.

From Literature

Related Words

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