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.
Bar"ren (băr"ren),
a. [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 (Zoöl.), a peculiar bear, inhabiting the Barren Grounds, now believed to be a variety of the brown bear of Europe. -- Barren Ground caribou (Zoöl.),
a small reindeer (Rangifer Grœnlandicus) peculiar
to the Barren Grounds and
Greenland.
Hear it pronounced