barren

«barren» in Mova's school dictionary: Of land: too poor to grow plants or crops; bare and… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (barren, more barren, most barren)

meaning for a pupil

1) Of land: too poor to grow plants or crops; bare and empty: a barren desert. tree →

2) (old, also Bible) Of a woman or animal: not able to have babies. tree →

3) Of a plant or tree: not producing fruit. tree →

4) Empty, giving no results: a barren argument. tree →

sense in the lessons

Geography and science: barren deserts, ice fields, rocky islands. In the Bible several women thought to be barren, like Sarah and Hannah, later have children, and Christians and Jews see this as God's blessing. Stories: barren land shows hardship.

examples

• Nothing grew on the barren hillside. tree →
• The Arctic tundra looks barren in winter. tree →
• The barren tree gave no apples. tree →
• In the Bible, Sarah was barren until she had Isaac. tree →
• After the fire, the land was barren. tree →
• The talks were long and barren. tree →
• So the brave old horse was turned out to find what he could among the rocks on the barren hill-side. tree →

note

Double r. Today «unable to have children» is said kindly with «infertile»; «barren» for people is old-fashioned and can hurt. Opposite for land: fertile.

In the corpora

• And Sarai was barren; she had no child.
• And the LORD saw that Leah was hated, and he opened her womb; but Rachel was barren.
• None shall miscarry, nor be barren, in thy land; the number of thy days I will fulfil.
• Thou shalt be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.
• Who maketh the barren woman to dwell in her house as a joyful mother of children.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «barren» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.