barrens

[Bar·ren]

Drive through a forest that's just been destroyed by a fire, and you'll get an idea of what barren means stripped of vegetation and devoid of life.

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Incapable of producing offspring; producing no young; sterile; -- aid of women and female animals.

Noun
an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation; "the barrens of central Africa"; "the trackless wastes of the desert"

Adjective S.
incapable of sustaining life; "the dead and barren Moon"

Adjective S.
not bearing offspring; "a barren woman"; "learned early in his marriage that he was sterile"

Adjective S.
providing no shelter or sustenance; "bare rocky hills"; "barren lands"; "the bleak treeless regions of the high Andes"; "the desolate surface of the moon"; "a stark landscape"


a.
Incapable of producing offspring; producing no young; sterile; -- said of women and female animals.

a.
Not producing vegetation, or useful vegetation; /rile.

a.
Unproductive; fruitless; unprofitable; empty.

a.
Mentally dull; stupid.

n.
A tract of barren land.

n.
Elevated lands or plains on which grow small trees, but not timber; as, pine barrens; oak barrens. They are not necessarily sterile, and are often fertile.


Barren

Bar"ren , a. [OE. barein, OF. brehaing, em. brehaigne, baraigne, F. br'82haigne; of uncertain origin; cf. Arm. br'82kha, markha, sterile; LL. brana a sterile mare, principally in Aquitanian and Spanish documents; Bisc. barau, baru, fasting.] 1. Incapable of producing offspring; producing no young; sterile; -- aid of women and female animals.
She was barren of children.
2. Not producing vegetation, or useful vegetation; rile. "Barren mountain tracts." Macaulay. 3. Unproductive; fruitless; unprofitable; empty.
Brilliant but barren reveries.
Some schemes will appear barren of hints and matter.
4. Mentally dull; stupid. Shak. Barren flower, a flower which has only stamens without a pistil, or which as neither stamens nor pistils. -- Barren Grounds (Geog.), a vast tract in British America northward of the forest regions. -- Barren Ground bear (Zo'94l.), a peculiar bear, inhabiting the Barren Grounds, now believed to be a variety of the brown bear of Europe. -- Barren Ground caribou (Zo'94l.), a small reindeer (Rangifer Gr'd2nlandicus) peculiar to the Barren Grounds and Greenland.

Barren

Bar"ren, n. 1. A tract of barren land. 2. pl. Elevated lands or plains on which grow small trees, but not timber; as, pine barrens; oak barrens. They are not necessarily sterile, and are often fertile. [Amer.] J. Pickering.

Incapable of producing offspring; producing no young; sterile; -- aid of women and female animals.

A tract of barren land.

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Usage Examples

Hold fast to dreams For when dreams go Life is a barren field Frozen with snow.

Men have looked upon the desert as barren land, the free holding of whoever chose but in fact each hill and valley in it had a man who was its acknowledged owner and would quickly assert the right of his family or clan to it, against aggression.

Revenge is barren of itself: it is the dreadful food it feeds on its delight is murder, and its end is despair.

You know, my friends, with what a brave carouse I made a Second Marriage in my house favored old barren reason from my bed, and took the daughter of the vine to spouse.

Misspelled Form

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Other Usage Examples

I love music passionately. And because I love it I try to free it from barren traditions that stifle it.

In Israel, a land lacking in natural resources, we learned to appreciate our greatest national advantage: our minds. Through creativity and innovation, we transformed barren deserts into flourishing fields and pioneered new frontiers in science and technology.

The battle for the mind of Ronald Reagan was like the trench warfare of World War I: never have so many fought so hard for such barren terrain.

Wise sayings often fall on barren ground, but a kind word is never thrown away.

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