Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BAR'RED, pp.

Fastened with a bar; hindered; restrained; excluded; forbid; striped; checkered.

BAR'REL, n. [W. Fr. baril; Sp. barril; It. barile; Arm. baraz.]

1. A vessel or cask, of more length than breadth, round and bulging in the middle, made of staves and heading, and bound with hoops.
2. The quantity which a barrel contains. Of wine measure, the English barrel contains 31 1/2 gallons; of beer measure, 36 gallons; of ale, 32 gallons; and of beer-vinegar, 34 gallons. Of weight, a barrel of Essex butter is 106 pounds; of Suffolk butter, 256; a barrel of herrings should contain 32 gallons wine measure, and hold 1000 herrings; a barrel of salmon should contain 42 gallons; a barrel of soap should weigh 256 lbs. – Johnson. Encyc. In America, the contents of a barrel are regulated by statutes. In Connecticut, the barrel for liquors must contain 31 1/2 gallons, each gallon to contain 231 cubic inches. In New York, a barrel of flour by statute must contain either 196 lbs. or 228 lbs. nett weight. The barrel of beef and pork in New York and Connecticut, is 200 lbs. In general, the contents of barrels, as defined by statute, in this country, must be from 28 to 31 gallons.
3. Any thing hollow and long; as, the barrel of a gun; a tube.
4. A cylinder; as, the barrel of a watch, within which the spring is coiled, and round which is wound the chain.
5. A cavity behind the tympanum of the ear is called the barrel of the ear. It is four or five lines deep, and five or six wide, and covered with a fine membrane. It is more usually called the cavity of the tympanum. – Encyc. Johnson.

BAR'REL, v.t.

To put in a barrel; to pack in a barrel with salt for preservation; as, to barrel beef, pork, or fish.

BAR'REL-BEL-LIED, a. [See Belly.]

Having a large belly. – Dryden.

BAR'REL-ED, pp.

1. Put or packed in a barrel.
2. In composition, having a barrel or tube; as, a double-barreled gun.

BAR'REL-ING, ppr.

Putting or packing in a barrel.

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.

BAR'REN, n.

1. In the States west of the Allegany, a word used to denote a tract of land, rising a few feet above the level of a plain, and producing trees and grass. The soil of these barrens is not barren, as the name imports, but often very fertile. It is usually alluvial, to a depth sometimes of several feet. – Atwater, Journ. of Science.
2. Any unproductive tract of land; as, the pine barrens of South Carolina. – Drayton.

BAR'REN-LY, adv.

Unfruitfully.

BAR'REN-NESS, n.

1. The quality of not producing its kind; want of the power of conception; applied to animals.
2. Unfruitfulness; sterility; infertility. The quality of not producing at all, or in small quantities; as, the barrenness of soil.
3. Want of invention; want of the power of producing any thing new; applied to the mind.
4. Want of matter; scantiness; as, the barrenness of a cause. – Hooker.
5. Defect of emotion, sensibility or fervency; as, the barrenness of devotion. – Taylor.

BAR'REN-WORT, n. [See Wort.]

A plant, constituting the genus Epimedium, of which the alpinum is the only species; a low herbaceous plant, with a creeping root, having many stalks, each of which has three flowers. – Encyc.

BAR'RI-CADE, n. [Fr. barricade; It. barricata; from It. barrare, Sp. barrear, to bar.]

1. A fortification made in haste, of trees, earth, palisades, wagons, or any thing that will obstruct the progress of an enemy, or serve for defense or security against his shot.
2. Any bar or obstruction; that which defends.
3. In naval architecture, a strong wooden rail, supported by stanchions, extending across the foremost part of the quarter deck, in ships of war, and filled with rope, mats, pieces of old cable, and full hammocks, to prevent the effect of small shot in time of action. – Encyc.

BAR'RI-CADE, v.t.

1. To stop up a passage; to obstruct.
2. To fortify with any slight work that prevents the approach of an enemy.

BAR-RI-CA'DO,

The same as BARRICADE.

BAR'RI-ER, n. [Fr. barriere; It. barriera; Sp. barrera; a barrier; Sp. barrear, to bar or barricade. See Bar.]

1. In fortification, a kind of fence made in a passage or retrenchment, composed of great stakes, with transoms or overthwart rafters, to stop an enemy. – Encyc.
2. A wall for defense.
3. A fortress or fortified town on the frontier of a country. – Swift.
4. Any obstruction; any thing which confines, or which hinders approach, or attack; as, constitutional barriers. – Hopkinson.
5. A bar to mark the limits of a place; any limit, or boundary; a line of separation. – Pope.

BARR'ING, ppr.

Making fast with a bar; obstructing; excluding; preventing; prohibiting; crossing with stripes.

BARR'ING-OUT, n.

Exclusion from a place; a boyish play. – Swift.

BAR'RIS-TER, n. [from, bar.]

A counselor learned in the laws, qualified and admitted to plead at the bar, and to take upon him the defense of clients; answering to the advocate or licentiate of other countries. Anciently, barristers were called, in England, apprentices of the law. Outer barristers are pleaders without the bar, to distinguish them from inner barristers, benchers or readers, who have been some time admitted to plead within the bar, as the king's counsel are. – Johnson. Encyc.

BAR'ROW, n.¹ [Sax. berewe; W. berva; Ger. bahre; D. berri; from the root of bear, to carry. See Bear.]

1. A light small carriage. A hand-barrow is a frame covered in the middle with boards, and borne by and between two men. A wheel-barrow, is a frame with a box, supported by one wheel, and rolled by a single man.
2. A wicker case, in salt works, where the salt is put to drain. – Encyc.

BAR'ROW, n.² [Sax. berga, or beorgh, a hog; D. barg, a barrow hog.]

1. In England, a hog; and according to Ash, obsolete. Barrow-grease is hog's lard.
2. In America, a male hog castrated; a word in common use.

BAR'ROW, n.³ [Sax. beara, or bearewe, a grove.]

In the names of places, barrow is used to signify a wood or grove.

BAR'ROW, n.⁴ [Sax. beorg, a hill or hillock; byrgen, a tomb; G. and D. bergen, to conceal, to save.]

A hillock or mound of earth, intended as a repository of the dead. Such barrows are found in England, in the north of the European continent, and in America. They sometimes were formed of stones, and in England called cairns. The barrow answers to the tumulus of the Latins. [See Tomb.]

BARSE, n. [G. bars, D. baars.]

An English name for the common perch. – Dict. of Nat. Hist.

BAR'SHOT, n. [See Bar and Shoot.]

Double-headed shot, consisting of a bar, with a half ball or round head at each end; used for destroying the masts and rigging in naval combat. – Mar. Dict.

BAR'TER, n.

The act or practice of trafficking by exchange of commodities; sometimes, perhaps, the thing given in exchange.