barren

[bar-uhn]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR barren ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

not producing or incapable of producing offspring; sterile: a barren woman.

unproductive; unfruitful: barren land.

without capacity to interest or attract: a barren period in American architecture.

mentally unproductive; dull; stupid.

not producing results; fruitless: a barren effort.

destitute; bereft; lacking (usually followed by of): barren of tender feelings.

noun

Usually barrens. level or slightly rolling land, usually with a sandy soil and few trees, and relatively infertile.

Origin of barren

1200–50; Middle English bareyn(e), barayn(e) < Anglo-French barai(gn)e, Old French brahaigne (French bréhaigne (of animals) sterile), akin to Spanish breña scrubby, uncultivated ground, Upper Italian barena land along a lagoon covered by high water; apparently < Celtic, compare Welsh braenar, Irish branar fallow land, but derivational details unclear

Related formsbar·ren·ly, adverbbar·ren·ness, nounun·bar·ren, adjectiveun·bar·ren·ly, adverbun·bar·ren·ness, noun

Can be confusedbarren baron baronet

Synonyms for barren

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR barren ON THESAURUS.COM

1. childless, unprolific, infertile. 2. infertile, depleted, waste. 5. ineffectual, ineffective.

Synonym study

2. See bare¹.

Antonyms for barren

1–6. fertile.

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

Related Words for barren

desolate, sterile, arid, parched, impoverished, infertile, empty, flat, dry, fallow, waste, desert, effete, fruitless, impotent, unfruitful, unproductive, infecund, unbearing, uncultivable

Examples from the Web for barren

Contemporary Examples of barren

First, though, he has to be shocked into recognizing the barren waste of his spiritual life – by spirits.
How Dickens and Scrooge Saved Christmas
Clive Irving
December 22, 2014
Without it in the atmosphere, the Earth would be a barren, frozen wasteland.
Extreme Weather? Blame the End Times
Jay Michaelson
November 28, 2014
Ibrahim Hijazi walked me through his barren house, emptied ahead of the demolition.
In Jerusalem Home Demolitions, the Biblical Justice of Revenge
Creede Newton
November 25, 2014
Shibirghan, the capital of Jowzjan province, is a remote and barren place, even by Afghan standards.
The Warlord Who Defines Afghanistan: An Excerpt From Bruce Riedel’s ’What We Won’
Bruce Riedel
July 27, 2014
In an ugly, barren press conference, they demanded a new election.
McDaniel Supporters Allege Fundraising Violations by NRSC
Ben Jacobs
July 12, 2014

Historical Examples of barren

They are barren, till the imagination has tenanted them with possibilities of danger and dismay.
Malbone
Thomas Wentworth Higginson
How long should its followers lurk in the barren lands of the North?
The Story of the Malakand Field Force
Sir Winston S. Churchill
But she did not allow herself to fall into the idleness of barren speculation.
The Secret Agent
Joseph Conrad
And both were so happy, so all in all to each other, as they left that barren threshold!
Night and Morning, Complete
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Once the earth was but a ball of dead, cold rock and barren sand.
Classic Myths
Mary Catherine Judd

British Dictionary definitions for barren

barren

adjective

incapable of producing offspring, seed, or fruit; sterilea barren tree

unable to support the growth of crops, etc; unproductive; barebarren land

lacking in stimulation or ideas; dulla rather barren play

not producing worthwhile results; unprofitablea barren period in a writer's life

(foll by of) totally lacking (in); devoid (of)his speech was barren of wit

(of rock strata) having no fossils

Derived Formsbarrenly, adverbbarrenness, noun

Word Origin for barren

C13: from Old French brahain, of uncertain origin

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 barren

adj.

c.1200, from Old French baraigne, baraing "sterile, barren" (12c.), perhaps originally brahain, of obscure derivation, perhaps from a Germanic language. In England, originally used of women, of land in France. Of land in English from late 14c. As a noun, mid-13c., "a barren woman;" later of land.

BARRENS. Elevated lands, or plains upon which grow small trees, but never timber. [Bartlett, "Dictionary of Americanisms," 1848]

barren in Medicine

barren

[băr′ən]

adj.

Not producing offspring.

Incapable of producing offspring.