barren
[ bar-uhn ]
/ ˈbær ən /
adjective
noun
Usually barrens. level or slightly rolling land, usually with a sandy soil and few trees, and relatively infertile.
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RELATED WORDS
desolate, sterile, arid, parched, impoverished, infertile, empty, flat, dry, fallow, waste, desert, effete, fruitless, impotent, unfruitful, unproductive, infecund, unbearing, uncultivable
Nearby words
- barreleye,
- barrelfish,
- barrelful,
- barrelhead,
- barrelhouse,
- barren ground caribou,
- barren grounds,
- barren lands,
- barren strawberry,
- barrenly
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
SYNONYMS FOR barren
Synonym study
2. See bare1.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for barren
barren
/ (ˈbærən) /
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
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
barren
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]
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
barren
[ băr′ən ]
adj.
Not producing offspring.
Incapable of producing offspring.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.