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Webster 1913 Edition

Barren

Bar′ren

(băr′ren)
,
Adj.
[OE.
barein
, OF.
brehaing
, fem.
brehaigne
,
baraigne
, F.
bréhaigne
; of uncertain origin; cf. Arm.
brékhañ
,
markhañ
, 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; sterile.
“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 has neither stamens nor pistils.
–
Barren Grounds
(Geog.)
,
a vast tract in British America northward of the forest regions.
–
Barren Ground bear
(Zool.)
,
a peculiar bear, inhabiting the Barren Grounds, now believed to be a variety of the brown bear of Europe.
–
Barren Ground caribou
(Zool.)
,
a small reindeer (
Rangifer Grœnlandicus
) peculiar to the Barren Grounds and Greenland.

Bar′ren

,
Noun.
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.

Webster 1828 Edition

Barren

BAR'REN

,
Adj.
[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 tree,&c.
4.
Not copious; scanty; as a scheme barren of hints.
5.
Not containing useful or entertaining ideas; as a barren treatise.
6.
Unmeaning; uninventive; dull; as barren spectators.
7.
Unproductive; not inventive; as a barren mind.

BAR'REN

,
Noun.
In the States west of the Allegheny, 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.
44
2.
Any unproductive tract of land; as the pine barrens of South Carolina.

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