Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BAR'REN, a. [from the same root as bare.]

1. Not producing young, or offspring; applied to animals.
2. Not producing plants; unfruitful; steril; not fertile; or producing little; unproductive; applied to the earth.
3. Not producing the usual fruit; applied to trees, &c.
4. Not copious; scanty; as, a scheme barren of hints. – Swift.
5. Not containing useful or entertaining ideas; as, a barren treatise.
6. Unmeaning; uninventive; dull; as, barren spectators. – Shak. Johnson. Qu.
7. Unproductive; not inventive; as, a barren mind.