barn
nounverbnouncommon in dialogue
- Canada/[ˈbɑɹn]/
- Canada/[ˈbɑɻn]/
- Ireland/[ˈbaɹn]/
- /[ˈbɒən]/
- /[ˈbɒɹn]/
A building, often found on a farm, used for storage or keeping animals such as cattle.
noun
- 1
A building, often found on a farm, used for storage or keeping animals such as cattle.
One day I was out in the barn and he drifted in. I was currying the horse and he set down on the wheelbarrow and begun to ask questions.
- 2
A unit of surface area equal to 10⁻²⁸ square metres.
- 3
informalAn arena.
Maple Leaf Gardens was a grand old barn.
- 4
slangA warm and cozy place, especially a bedroom; a roost.
Etymology
From Middle English barn, bern, bærn, from Old English bearn, bern, contracted forms of Old English berern, bereærn (“barn, granary”), compound of bere (“barley”) and ærn, ræn (“dwelling, barn”), from Proto-West Germanic *raʀn, from Proto-Germanic *razną (compare Old Norse rann), from pre-Germanic *h₁rh̥₁-s-nó-, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁erh₁- (“to rest”). More at rest and barley. For the use as a unit of surface area, see w:Barn (unit) § Etymology.
verb
- 1
To lay up in a barn.
But like still-pining Tantalus he sits / And useless barns the harvest of his wits
Hypocrites, in like manner, so act holiness that they pass for saints before men, whose censures often barn up the chaff, and burn up the grain.
noun
- 1
A child.
Etymology
From Middle English barn, bern, from Old English bearn (“child, son, offspring, progeny”) and Old Norse barn (“child”). Doublet of bairn. Cognate to West Frisian bern (“child, children”), Middle Dutch baren (“child”).
Forms
- plural
- barns
- past tense
- barned
- past participle
- barned
- present participle
- barning
- third person singular
- barns
barn · A building, often found on a farm, used for storage or keeping animals such as cattle.
Barn · A diminutive of the male given names Barney, Barnabas,…Barnaby · A male given name from Hebrew, from the medieval vernacular…Barnes · A surname.