Adjacent Words

Barn definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

BARN, n.[Eng.born.] A child. [Little used in English.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: an outlying farm building for storing grain or animal feed and housing farm animals
2: (physics) a unit of nuclear cross section; the effective circular area that one particle presents to another as a target for an encounter [syn: barn, b]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English bern, from Old English bereærn, from bere barley + ærn house, store Date: before 12th century 1. a. a usually large building for the storage of farm products or feed and usually for the housing of farm animals or farm equipment b. an unusually large and usually bare building <a great barn of a hotel — W. A. White> 2. a large building for the housing of a fleet of vehicles (as trolley cars or trucks) • barnlike adjective • barny adjective

Oxford Reference Dictionary

1. n. 1 a large farm building for storing grain etc. 2 derog. a large plain or unattractive building. 3 US a large shed for storing road or railway vehicles. Phrases and idioms: barn dance 1 an informal social gathering for country dancing, orig. in a barn. 2 a dance for a number of couples forming a line or circle, with couples moving along it in turn. barn-owl a kind of owl, Tyto alba, frequenting barns. Etymology: OE bern, beren f. bere barley + ern, ærn house 2. n. Physics a unit of area, 10(-28) square metres, used esp. in particle physics. Usage: Symb.: b. Etymology: perh. f. phrase 'as big as a barn'

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Barn Barn, n. [OE. bern, AS. berern, bern; bere barley + ern, [ae]rn, a close place. ?92. See Barley.] A covered building used chiefly for storing grain, hay, and other productions of a farm. In the United States a part of the barn is often used for stables. Barn owl (Zo["o]l.), an owl of Europe and America (Aluco flammeus, or Strix flammea), which frequents barns and other buildings. Barn swallow (Zo["o]l.), the common American swallow (Hirundo horreorum), which attaches its nest of mud to the beams and rafters of barns.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Barn Barn, v. t. To lay up in a barn. [Obs.] --Shak. Men . . . often barn up the chaff, and burn up the grain. --Fuller.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Barn Barn, n. A child. [Obs.] See Bairn.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(barns) A barn is a building on a farm in which crops or animal food can be kept. N-COUNT

Easton's Bible Dictionary

a storehouse (Deut. 28:8; Job 39:12; Hag. 2:19) for grain, which was usually under ground, although also sometimes above ground (Luke 12:18).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

barn (meghurah, "a granary," "fear," Hag 2:19; acam, "a storehouse," Pr 3:10; mammeghurah, "a repository," Joe 1:17; apotheke, Mt 6:26; 13:30; Lu 12:18,24): A place for the storing of grain, usually a dry cistern in the ground, covered over with a thick layer of earth. "Grain is not stored in the East until it is threshed and winnowed. The apotheke in Roman times was probably a building of some kind. But the immemorial usage of the East has been to conceal the grain, in carefully prepared pits or caves, which, being perfectly dry, will preserve it for years. It thus escaped, as far as possible, the attentions of the tax-gatherer as well as of the robber--not always easily distinguished in the East; compare Jer 41:8" (Temple Dictionary, 215).

Figurative of heaven (Mt 13:30).

See AGRICULTURE; GARNER.

M. O. Evans

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

A parson's barn; never so full but there is still room, for more. Bit by a barn mouse, tipsey, probably from an allusion to barley.