barrel

t. [From barrel, s. (q.v.) In Fr. embar iller.] To put in a barrel. " Barrel up earth, and sow some seed in it, and put it in the bottom of a pond."- Bacon . † băr-rel-ět, s . [BARRULET.] bar-relled, pa. par., adj ., & in compos. [BARREL, v.] A. & B. As past participle & adjective: 1. Put or packed in a barrel. 2. Shaped like a barrel. C. In compos. Having a barrel or barrels: "a five- barrelled revolver." as, IMG:content-1079.png:[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small] actually producing it; sterile, unfruitful, unprolific. and his wife was barren, and bare not."Judg. xiii. 2. "There shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle."- Deut . vii. 14. (2) Of plants : Not prcducing fruit; as "the barren fig-tree." "Violets, a barren kind, Wither'd on the ground must lie." Words worth; Foresight. (3) Of the ground: Not fertile, sterile, not yielding abundant crops. the situation of this city is pleasant; but th water is naught, and the ground barren."-2 -2 Kinge ii. 19. "Tele mach us is far from exalting the nature of his country; he confe es it to be barren."- Pope. 2. Figuratively: (1) Of the mind: Not intellectually productive, uninventive, dull. "There be of them that will make themselves laugh, to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too."-Shakesp. Hamlet, iii. 2. (2) Of things in general: (a) Unproductive, not bringing with it anything beyond itself; not descending from father to son. "Upon my head they plac'd a fruitle crown, And put a barren ren sceptre in my gripe." Shakesp.: Macbeth , iii. 1. (b) Scanty, not copious; deficient; wanting in number or quantity. (In construction followed by of . ) "The forty-three years of his reign are as barren of events as they are of names,"- Lewis : Early Roman Hist . (1855), chap. x1., § 18. IL Botany: A barren flower: (1) A flower which has only stamina, without a pistil example, the males of monœcio us and of diœcio us plants. (2) Having neither stamina nor pistil: example, some flowers in certain gra es and sedges. B. As substantive: 1. In the States west of the Alleghany: A tract of land rising a few feet above the level of a plain, and producing trees and gra . 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. (Webster.) 2. Any unproductive tract of land, as "the pine- barrens of South Carolina." ( Webster .) [PINE-BARREN.] barren-flowered, adj. Having barren flowers.