barney
barney
1 American
[bahr-nee]
/ ˈbɑr ni /
noun
-
barneys
plural
-
Informal.
-
an argument.
-
a prizefight.
-
a fight or brawl.
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a blunder or mistake.
-
-
a small locomotive used in mining and logging.
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Movie Slang. a heavily padded cover for a camera, used to reduce the camera noise so that it will not be picked up by the sound-recording equipment.
Barney
2
American
[bahr-nee]
/ ˈbɑr ni /
noun
barney
British
/ ˈbɑːnɪ /
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of barney
First recorded in 1860–65; perhaps special uses of Barney
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:
“Even barney did plastic surgery,” one person tweeted.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 15, 2023
For "sell 10,000 bushels of May wheat at $1.45 1/4" the message might read: "Sell barney stoke", explained Ross.
From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2013
If you've skipped my ramblings and jumped straight down to the comments for a barney, I applaud you and thank you for that, too, even though you'll never know.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 3, 2013
I’ve had a reasonably public barney with Mark Lynas in the pages of The Guardian.
From Forbes ● Jan. 5, 2013
They had a right barney this evening, actually over the dinner table.
From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell
Barney Pressman at Barneys, he was the first one to display my goods in the New York shop window 35 years ago.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
BBC Radio 1 presenter Greg James has shared his heartbreak following the death of his dog Barney.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
"Maximum aerobic capacity at this kind of altitude usually drops around 10%, and that has a knock-on to performance," says Dr. Barney Wainwright, senior research fellow at Leeds Beckett University.
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026
On a September night in 1961, Hill's grandfather Barney and his wife Betty believed they were abducted by aliens as they returned home from vacation.
From Barron's ● May 29, 2026
"No, Mr. McSouthers, I'm sorry, but I haven't seen Barney Northrup since I rented this apartment."
From "The Westing Game" by Ellen Raskin
If barneys used to be the norm in football dressing rooms, the modern-day footballer is a milder-mannered creature.
From BBC ● Nov. 19, 2014
They were always having "barneys," and it would only be looked upon as one of his usual freaks.
From The Ebbing Of The Tide South Sea Stories - 1896 by Louis Becke
We had long talks and barneys over the whole thing—sometimes by ourselves with Starlight, sometimes with father.
From Robbery under Arms; a story of life and adventure in the bush and in the Australian goldfields by Rolf Boldrewood
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.
