barrack

[bar-uh k]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR barrack ON THESAURUS.COM

noun Usually barracks.

a building or group of buildings for lodging soldiers, especially in garrison.

any large, plain building in which many people are lodged.

verb (used with or without object)

to lodge in barracks.

Origin of barrack

1680–90; < French baraque, Middle French < Catalan barraca hut, of obscure origin

barrack

[bar-uh k]Australian British

verb (used without object)

to shout boisterously for or against a player or team; root or jeer.

verb (used with object)

to shout for or against.

Origin of barrack

1885–90; orig. Australian English, perhaps < N Ireland dialect barrack to brag

Related formsbar·rack·er, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for barrack

hut, garrison, camp, barracks, base, quarters

Examples from the Web for barrack

Contemporary Examples of barrack

There are lovingly tended flower beds along each road and surrounding every barrack.
Afghanistan, We Hardly Knew You
Jonathan Foreman
December 8, 2014
Hafrich shouts that he should return to the barrack, but the man keeps going.
The Last Days of Stalin's Son During WWII
David Frum
March 4, 2013
The Arab media has taken note of the president taking the oath of office using his full name—Barrack Hussein Obama.
Carrots and Sticks for the Middle East
Salameh Nematt
January 20, 2009

Historical Examples of barrack

By barrack and camp life the normal civilian intellect is, as it were, marooned.
Another Sheaf
John Galsworthy
Beg pardon, sir; but you are the gentleman from the barrack, sir?
The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer, Complete
Charles James Lever (1806-1872)
I know he's here, for I heard him as I crossed the barrack square.
VC -- A Chronicle of Castle Barfield and of the Crimea
David Christie Murray
It is fast falling into ruin since it was abandoned as a barrack.
Memoirs of the Jacobites of 1715 and 1745
Mrs. Thomson
It is a wooden structure, looking more like a barrack than a castle.
Over the Rocky Mountains to Alaska
Charles Warren Stoddard

British Dictionary definitions for barrack

barrack

verb

to house (people, esp soldiers) in barracks

barrack

verb British, Australian and NZ informal

to criticize loudly or shout against (a player, team, speaker, etc); jeer

(intr foll by for) to shout support (for)

Derived Formsbarracker, nounbarracking, noun, adjective

Word Origin for barrack

C19: from northern Irish: to boast

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for barrack

1680s, "temporary hut for soldiers during a siege," from French barraque, from Spanish barraca (mid-13c. in Medieval Latin) "soldier's tent," literally "cabin, hut," perhaps from barro "clay, mud," which is probably of Celt-Iberian origin. Meaning "permanent building for housing troops" (usually in plural) is attested from 1690s.