📖 B — The English dictionary · page 8

barb — Everyday, meaning 1: A barb is a sharp point that sticks out backwards from the tip of a fish hook, arrow or wire, so it is hard to pull out.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A barb is an unkind remark meant to hurt someone.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: In biology, barbs are the thin side threads on a feather, and the sharp backward hooks on a bee's sting.↗ Example: The fish hook has a barb so the fish can't slip off.↗ · The bee's sting has tiny barbs.↗ · Barbed wire runs along the top of the fence.↗ · Her barb about my hair really hurt.↗ · Each feather has hundreds of tiny barbs.↗ · Be careful — the barbs on the wire are sharp.↗ · The arrowhead had a barb at the back.↗ · He ignored the barbs from the other team.↗

barbarian — Everyday, meaning 1: (history) A name the ancient Greeks and Romans gave to people from outside their world, whom they saw as wild and uncivilised.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A person who behaves in a very cruel, violent or rough way.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: (informal, jokey) A person with bad manners or no taste.↗ e.g. "You put ketchup on that?↗ You barbarian!"↗ Example: The Romans built walls to keep out the barbarians.↗ · The Greeks called foreigners barbarians because their speech sounded like "bar-bar".↗ · Barbarian tribes attacked Rome.↗ · "Who eats pizza with pineapple?↗ Barbarians!" joked my uncle.↗ · Only a barbarian would hurt an animal for fun.↗ · The Vikings were seen as barbarians by the monks they raided.↗ · Had his thoughts ventured to fly with the ships of the barbarians, to their homes in far distant England?↗

barbarous — Everyday, meaning 1: Barbarous means very cruel, savage or uncivilised, without pity for others.↗ It is a formal, rather old word.↗ Example: The king's barbarous laws made the people weep.↗ · Stop this barbarous practice at once!↗ · It was a barbarous act to leave the old dog out in the cold.↗

barbecue — Everyday, meaning 1: A metal grill or frame used for cooking food outdoors over hot coals, wood or gas.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: An outdoor meal or party where food is cooked like this.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: To cook food on a barbecue.↗ Example: We had a barbecue in the back garden.↗ · Dad barbecued sausages and corn.↗ · Keep away from the hot barbecue.↗ · Make sure the chicken is cooked right through.↗ · We're invited to a barbecue on Saturday.↗ · Pass the barbecue sauce, please.↗

barbed — Everyday, meaning 1: Barbed means having barbs — small sharp hooks or points pointing backwards, which make something hard to pull out, like a fish hook.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A barbed remark is a comment that is unkind and meant to hurt.↗ Example: Stay away from the barbed wire fence.↗ · A honeybee's sting is barbed, so it stays in your skin.↗ · The fishing hook is barbed, so the fish can't slip off.↗ · Porcupine quills are barbed and hard to remove.↗ · The farmer put up barbed wire to keep the cows in.↗ · She made a barbed comment about my drawing.↗ · Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? or his head with fish-spears?↗ (Writings JOB.40.31, JPS 1917)↗

barbel — Everyday, meaning 1: A barbel is a freshwater fish with whisker-like feelers at its mouth, which it uses to find food on the river bed.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: The barbels are these thin feelers themselves.↗ Example: The barbel lay still on the river bed.↗ · A barbel has feelers like whiskers near its mouth.↗ · The fishermen caught a large barbel in the river.↗

barberry — Everyday, meaning 1: A barberry is a prickly bush with small yellow flowers and red berries that taste sour, often grown as a hedge.↗ Example: The hedge was full of barberry bushes.↗ · Red barberries grew along the path.↗ · The sheep avoided the prickly barberry.↗

bard — Everyday, meaning 1: (old) A bard was a poet and singer who told stories in verse, especially in old Celtic lands such as Wales, Ireland and Scotland.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (literary) A bard is any poet.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: «The Bard» means William Shakespeare.↗ Example: The bard sang of the great deeds of the king.↗ · Welsh bards compete at the Eisteddfod.↗ · Shakespeare is called the Bard of Avon.↗ · The bard played his harp by the fire.↗ · Robert Burns is Scotland's national bard.↗ · Toad thought himself a great bard and wrote songs about himself.↗ · “I would wait twice as long for a poem,” said the inveterate bard.↗

bare — Everyday, meaning 1: Bare means not covered by clothes, like bare feet or bare arms.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Bare means empty or with nothing on it, like a bare room or bare trees in winter.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: Bare means just the smallest amount, as in the bare minimum.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: To bare something means to show it by uncovering it, like an animal baring its teeth.↗ Early Modern English, meaning 1: Without covering, or with nothing left in it.↗ Example: Don't walk on the beach in bare feet; there may be glass.↗ · The trees are bare in winter.↗ · The cupboard was bare; there was no food left.↗ · He lifted the heavy box with his bare hands.↗ · The dog bared its teeth and growled.↗ · Her room had bare white walls.↗ · He did the bare minimum of homework.↗ · She ran out with her little bare feet.↗ · And Balaam said unto Balak: 'Stand by thy burnt-offering, and I will go; peradventure the LORD will come to meet me; and whatsoever He showeth me I will tell thee.'↗ And he went to a bare height.↗ (Torah NUM.23.3, JPS 1917)↗ · Thy bow is made quite bare; sworn are the rods of the word.↗ (Prophets HAB.3.9, JPS 1917)↗ · A fool hath no delight in understanding, but only that his heart may lay itself bare.↗ (Writings PRO.18.2, JPS 1917)↗ · The voice of the LORD maketh the hinds to calve, and strippeth the forests bare; and in His temple all say: 'Glory.'↗ (Writings PSA.29.9, JPS 1917)↗ · And Balaam said unto Balak: 'Stand by thy burnt-offering, and I will go; peradventure the LORD will come to meet me; and whatsoever He showeth me I will tell thee.'↗ And he went to a bare height.↗ (Torah NUM.23.3, JPS 1917) · She ran out with her little bare feet.↗ (The Pink Fairy Book) · Never mind if you leave the palace bare.’↗ (The Pink Fairy Book)

barefoot — Everyday, meaning 1: Barefoot means not wearing any shoes or socks on your feet.↗ Example: We ran barefoot on the beach.↗ · Don't walk barefoot where there might be broken glass.↗ · She does gymnastics barefoot.↗ · The sand was too hot to walk on barefoot.↗ · In the story, the poor boy was barefoot in the snow.↗ · I stepped on a bee when I was barefoot in the garden.↗ · Many children go barefoot at home.↗ · He walked barefoot across the cool grass.↗ · "I'd rather walk barefoot than drive with him in a coach!"↗ · And the LORD said: 'Like as My servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot to be for three years a sign and a wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia, (Prophets ISA.20.3, JPS 1917)↗ · so shall the king of Assyria lead away the captives of Egypt, and the exiles of Ethiopia, young and old, naked and barefoot, and with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.↗ (Prophets ISA.20.4, JPS 1917)↗ · at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying: 'Go, and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put thy shoe from off thy foot.'↗ And he did so, walking naked and barefoot.↗ (Prophets ISA.20.2, JPS 1917)↗

barehanded — Everyday, meaning 1: Using only your hands, without gloves, tools or weapons.↗ Example: He caught the ball barehanded.↗ · She picked up the nettles barehanded and got stung.↗ · Never pick up broken glass barehanded.↗ · The hero fought the wolf barehanded.↗ · Grandad catches crabs barehanded.↗ · It was so cold that working barehanded hurt.↗

bareheaded — Everyday, meaning 1: Bareheaded means with nothing on the head, without a hat or cap.↗ Example: He walked bareheaded in the rain.↗ · The bareheaded girl shivered in the snow.↗ · Take off your hat, and stand bareheaded in the church.↗

barely — Everyday, meaning 1: Only just; almost not (I barely caught the bus).↗ Everyday, meaning 2: Hardly at all; very little (She barely ate).↗ Everyday, meaning 3: Only a very short time before (We had barely sat down when the phone rang).↗ Example: I barely finished the test in time.↗ · There was barely enough cake for everyone.↗ · He could barely see through the fog.↗ · We barely knew each other then.↗ · The puppy was barely a week old.↗ · She barely passed, with 50 out of 100.↗ · I'd barely got home when it started to rain.↗ · They made their rush, and I barely escaped from them.↗

bareness — In Jewish tradition, meaning 1: The state of being bare, with nothing on it or in it, such as land without plants or covering.↗

bargain — Everyday, meaning 1: A bargain is something you buy for less than its usual price, a good deal.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A bargain is an agreement in which each person promises to do something.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: To bargain means to talk with someone to agree on a price or a deal, trying to get a better one.↗ Example: These shoes were a bargain at half price.↗ · We found lots of bargains at the car boot sale.↗ · At the market, Dad bargained for a lower price.↗ · We made a bargain: I tidy my room and I can stay up late.↗ · Keep your side of the bargain!↗ · The witch made a bargain with the princess.↗ · A 2-litre bottle for 1 dollar is a better bargain than a 1-litre bottle for 70 cents.↗ · The storm was more than we bargained for.↗ · The landlord agreed to the bargain.↗

barge — Everyday, meaning 1: A barge is a long boat with a flat bottom used to carry heavy loads on rivers and canals.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: (informal verb) To barge means to push roughly or rudely past people or into a place.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: To barge in means to interrupt or enter rudely without being asked.↗ Example: A barge carried sand along the canal.↗ · The barge can carry 300 tonnes; how many trips for 1,200 tonnes?↗ · Some families live on narrow barges.↗ · Don't barge in while I'm on the phone!↗ · He barged past me in the queue.↗ · The dog barged into the kitchen.↗ · Here a splendid barge was waiting for them, and from it they watched all sorts of races and feats of swimming and diving.↗

bargewoman — Everyday, meaning 1: A bargewoman is a woman who lives on or steers a barge, a long flat-bottomed boat that carries goods on canals and rivers.↗ Example: The bargewoman steered the barge along the canal.↗ · Toad pretended to be a washerwoman to the bargewoman.↗ · The bargewoman's horse pulled the barge on the towpath.↗ · Furious, the bargewoman threw Toad into the river.↗ · Canal families, bargemen and bargewomen, lived on their boats.↗ · The bargewoman laughed at Toad's poor washing.↗

barium — Everyday, meaning 1: A soft, silvery chemical element, a metal, with the symbol Ba and atomic number 56.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: A white drink with a barium compound that patients swallow so their stomach shows up on an X-ray (a barium meal).↗ Example: Barium makes fireworks glow green.↗ · The symbol for barium is Ba.↗ · My granddad had to drink barium before his X-ray.↗ · Barium is a metal in the periodic table.↗ · Pure barium reacts with water.↗ · Barium shows up white on an X-ray.↗

bark — Everyday, meaning 1: A bark is the short loud sound a dog makes.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: To bark is to make this sound.↗ Everyday, meaning 3: Bark is the hard outer covering of a tree trunk and branches.↗ Everyday, meaning 4: To bark (at someone) is to say something in a loud, sharp voice, like an order.↗ Example: The dog barked at the postman.↗ · We heard a loud bark from next door.↗ · The bark of the oak tree is rough.↗ · Some animals eat tree bark in winter.↗ · The coach barked orders at the team.↗ · His bark is worse than his bite.↗ · If you think I did it, you're barking up the wrong tree.↗ · "Away, away," barked the old yard-dog.↗ · His watchmen are all blind, without knowledge; they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; raving, lying down, loving to slumber.↗ (Prophets ISA.56.10, JPS 1917)↗

barley — Everyday, meaning 1: A cereal plant like wheat, whose grain is used for food, for animal feed and for making beer and malt.↗ Example: The farmer grows barley in that field.↗ · Barley soup is warm and filling.↗ · Barley is used to make malt.↗ · Barley was one of the first crops people farmed.↗ · Lemon barley water is a British drink.↗ · The wind made the barley wave.↗ · They were flying about when three grains of barley fell on the floor.↗ · a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig-trees and pomegranates; a land of olive-trees and honey; (Torah DEU.8.8, JPS 1917)↗ · And the flax and the barley were smitten; for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was in bloom.↗ (Torah EXO.9.31, JPS 1917)↗ · Behold, he winnoweth barley to-night in the threshing-floor.↗ (Writings RUT.3.2, JPS 1917)↗ · Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and noisome weeds instead of barley.↗ (Writings JOB.31.40, JPS 1917)↗ · So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer of barley, and a half-homer of barley; (Prophets HOS.3.2, JPS 1917)↗

barleycorn — Everyday, meaning 1: A barleycorn is one grain of barley, a tiny seed from the barley plant.↗ Everyday, meaning 2: An old unit of length, about a third of an inch, used in old measuring.↗ Example: One barleycorn is a tiny grain of barley.↗ · The hen pecked up every barleycorn in the yard.↗ · The fairy said she would rather have one barleycorn than all the jewels.↗