Definition of "barb"

barb¹

/bɑː(ɹ)b/

noun
plural barbs
1. The point that stands backward in an arrow, fishhook, etc., to prevent it from being easily extracted. Hence: Anything which stands out with a sharp point obliquely or crosswise to something else.
  Quotations
  Having two barbs or points.
  1545, Roger Ascham, Toxophilus
2. (figuratively) A hurtful or disparaging remark.
  Quotations
  And she was the only girl in class who did not, sometime through the lesson, get a barb of sarcasm from Miss Brownell, though she made as many mistakes as the rest of them.
  1923, Lucy Maud Montgomery, “Chapter 8”, in Emily of New Moon
  “Maybe I just wanted to come and see for myself if you were real. Or if you were a figment of my imagination.” The barb hurt, but she didn't blame him.
  2018, Elle Wright, Wherever You Are (The Jacksons of Ann Arbor)‎, HarperCollins
  His barbs about fake accounts have weakened trust in Twitter, just as the company prepares to moderate heated political discussions about an upcoming election in Brazil and the midterm elections this fall in the United States, misinformation experts said.
  2022 July 11, Kate Conger, Mike Isaac, “How Elon Musk Damaged Twitter and Left It Worse Off”, in The New York Times‎
3. A beard, or that which resembles it, or grows in the place of it.
  Quotations
  The barbel is so called […] by reason of his barbs, or wattles at his mouth.
  1653, Iz[aak] Wa[lton], The Compleat Angler or The Contemplative Man’s Recreation. Being a Discourse of Fish and Fishing, […], London: […] T. Maxey for Rich[ard] Marriot, […]; reprinted as The Compleat Angler (Homo Ludens; 6), Nieuwkoop, South Holland, Netherlands: Miland Publishers, 1969,
4. (ornithology) One of the many side branches of a feather, which collectively constitute the vane.
5. (ichthyology) Any of various species of freshwater carp-like fish that have barbels and belong to the cyprinid family.
6. (US) The sciaenid fish Menticirrhus americanus, found along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States.
7. (botany) A hair or bristle ending in a double hook.
8. (obsolete) A muffler, worn by nuns and mourners.
9. Paps, or little projections, of the mucous membrane, which mark the opening of the submaxillary glands under the tongue in horses and cattle. The name is mostly applied when the barbs are inflamed and swollen.
10. (obsolete) A bit for a horse.
  Quotations
  His loftie steed with golden sell And goodly gorgeous barbes.
  1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie
11. A plastic fastener, shaped roughly like a capital I (with serifs), used to attach socks etc. to their packaging.
verb
third-person singular simple present barbs, present participle barbing, simple past and past participle barbed
1. To furnish with barbs, or with that which will hold or hurt like barbs, as an arrow, fishhook, spear, etc.
  Quotations
  […] for this day will pour down, / If I conjecture aught, no drizzling shower, / But rattling storm of arrows barbed with fire.
  1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, lines 544–546
  Undoubtedly—when Ingratitude barbs the Dart of Injury—the wound has double danger in it—
  1777, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for Scandal, IV.iii
  Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. Indeed, a nail filed sharp is not of much avail as an arrowhead; you must have it barbed, and that was a little beyond our skill.
  1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter II, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […]
  Her coat was a tangled mass, barbed with last year's burs, matted disgustingly with cow dung.
  1944, Emily Carr, “Meg the Worker”, in The House of All Sorts
2. (Nigeria) To cut (hair).
3. (obsolete) To shave or dress the beard of.
4. (obsolete) To clip; to mow.
  Quotations
  O thou pale ſober night, / […] / The ſtooping Sitheman that dooth barbe the field, / Thou makſt winke ſure: […]
  c. 1603 (date written), Iohn Marston, The Malcontent, London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for William Aspley, […], published 1604, Act III, scene ii

barb²

/bɑː(ɹ)b/

noun
plural barbs
1. The Barbary horse, a superior breed introduced from Barbary into Spain by the Moors.
  Quotations
  Why sends not the Bridegroom his promised gift, / Is his heart more cold, or his barb less swift?
  1813, Lord Byron, The Giaour, a Fragment of a Turkish Tale, 8th edition, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], for John Murray, […], page 34, lines 699–700
  However, in the last few years, the stud farms in Morocco and elsewhere in the world have rediscovered the qualities of the barb, which, in Berber tradition, remains the king of the "fantasias", a festival that is also becoming fashionable once again.
  2009 October, Laurent Roustan, “The Horse, Present since the Dawn of Time”, in Alphatrad Internationale, transl., Au Royaume du Cheval: Les Haras Nationaux du Maroc [In the Kingdom of the Horse: The National Studs of Morocco], Souyri, Aveyron, France: Editions Au fil du Temps
2. A blackish or dun variety of pigeon, originally brought from Barbary.

barb³

/bɑː(ɹ)b/

noun
plural barbs
1. (informal, pharmacology) A barbiturate.
  Quotations
  The benzos, it turns out, are just as highly addicting as the barbs, but they do have a much lower potential to cause death by overdose. […] The barbs became one of the most widely abused classes of drugs in the 1960s and 1970s.
  1998, Jerry Dorsman, How to Quit Drugs for Good: A Complete Self-Help Guide, New York, NY: Three Rivers Press, page 50

barb⁴

/bɑː(ɹ)b/

noun
plural barbs
1. Armor for a horse.
  Quotations
  The defensive armor with the horses of the ancient knights ... These are frequently, though improperly, stiled barbs.
  1786, Francis Grose, A Treatise on Ancient Armour and Weapons, page 29
verb
third-person singular simple present barbs, present participle barbing, simple past and past participle barbed
1. To cover a horse in armor.
  Quotations
  And now, in stead of mounting barbed steeds / To fright the souls of fearful adversaries, / He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber […].
  c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene i], line 10

Definition of "barb"

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