barren (baren)

and n. [Early mod. E. also barraine, There shall not be male or female barren among you. Deut. vii. 14. In particular-(a) Sterile; castrated: said of male ani mals. (b) Without fruit or seed: said of trees or plants, (c) Bearing no children; childle ; without i ue: said of a woman. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai,... but Sarai was barren ; she had no child. Gen. xi. 29, 30, For aye to be in shady cloister mew'd, To live a barren sister all your life. Shak., M. N. D., i. 1. (d) Not bearing or pregnant at the usual season: said of female animals: as, barren heifers. 2. Producing little or no vegetation; unproductive; unfruitful; sterile: applied to land. Another rocky valley yawned beneath us, and another barren stony hill rose up beyond. R. Curzon, Monast, in the Levant, p. 144. 3. In mining , unproductive; unprofitable: applied to rocks.-4. Void of vital germs. It is particularly difficult to protect a liquid from all germs, or to destroy all those which have penetrated it; however, it is po ible, and the liquid is then said to be Science, III. 128, barren. 5. Mentally unproductive; unresponsive; dull; stupid. [Rare.] There be of them, that will themselves laugh, to set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too. Shak., Hamlet, iii. 2. A cow not in calf for the year. barrenly (bar'en-li), adv. Unfruitfully. barrenne (bar'en-nes), n. [ creation; want of the power of conception. I pray'd for children, and thought barrenne In wedlock a reproach. Milton , S. A., 1. 352. (b) Want of fertility; total or partial sterility; infertility: producing anything; want of instructivene , suggestive as, the barrenne of the land. (c) Want of the power of ne , interest, or the like; want of matter: as, ne of invention," Dryden. barren others should cry up the barrenne of the French plots, And this leads me to wonder why Lisideius and many above the variety and copiousne of the English. Dryden, E . on Dram. Poesy. The barrenne of his fellow students forced him generally into other company at his hours of entertainment. Johnson, Rambler, No. 19. (d) Defect of emotion, sensibility, or fervency. The greatest saints sometimes are fervent, and sometimes feel a barrenne of devotion. Jer. Taylor .