Hypertext Webster Gateway: "barren"
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary (easton)
Barren
For a woman to be barren was accounted a severe punishment among
the Jews (Gen. 16:2; 30:1-23; 1 Sam. 1:6, 27; Isa. 47:9; 49:21;
Luke 1:25). Instances of barrenness are noticed (Gen. 11:30;
25:21; 29:31; Judg. 13:2, 3; Luke 1:7, 36).
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Barren \Bar"ren\, a. [OE. barein, OF. brehaing, fem. brehaigne,
baraigne, F. br['e]haigne; of uncertain origin; cf. Arm.
br['e]kha[~n], markha[~n], sterile; LL. brana a sterile mare,
principally in Aquitanian and Spanish documents; Bisc. barau,
baru, fasting.]
1. Incapable of producing offspring; producing no young;
sterile; -- said of women and female animals.
She was barren of children. --Bp. Hall.
2. Not producing vegetation, or useful vegetation; ?rile.
``Barren mountain tracts.'' --Macaulay.
3. Unproductive; fruitless; unprofitable; empty.
Brilliant but barren reveries. --Prescott.
Some schemes will appear barren of hints and matter.
--Swift.
4. Mentally dull; stupid. --Shak.
{Barren flower}, a flower which has only stamens without a
pistil, or which as neither stamens nor pistils.
{Barren Grounds} (Geog.), a vast tract in British America
northward of the forest regions.
{Barren Ground bear} (Zo["o]l.), a peculiar bear, inhabiting
the Barren Grounds, now believed to be a variety of the
brown bear of Europe.
{Barren Ground caribou} (Zo["o]l.), a small reindeer
({Rangifer Gr[oe]nlandicus}) peculiar to the Barren
Grounds and Greenland.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Barren \Bar"ren\, n.
1. A tract of barren land.
2. pl. Elevated lands or plains on which grow small trees,
but not timber; as, pine barrens; oak barrens. They are
not necessarily sterile, and are often fertile. [Amer.]
--J. Pickering.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
barren
adj 1: without offspring; "in some societies a barren woman is
rejected by her tribesmen" [syn: {childless}]
2: not fertile or productive; "a barren tree"; "soil too
infertile to sustain real pasture" [syn: {infertile}]
3: providing no shelter or sustenance; "bare rocky hills";
"barren lands"; "the bleak treeless regions of the high
Andes"; "the desolate surface of the moon"; "a stark
landscape" [syn: {bare}, {bleak}, {desolate}, {stark}]
4: not bearing offspring; "a barren woman"; "learned early in
his marriage that he was sterile" [syn: {sterile}]
5: incapable of sustaining life; "the dead and barren Moon"
n : an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation;
"the barrens of central Africa"; "the trackless wastes of
the desert" [syn: {waste}, {wasteland}]
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