barb
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /bɑː(ɹ)b/
rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)b
Forms: form: barbs
Etymology: PIE word
 *bʰardʰéh₂
From Middle English barbe, from Middle French barbe, from Old French barbe (“beard, beard-like element”). Doublet of beard.
Senses: examples: text: Having two barbs or points.
ref: 1545, Roger Ascham, Toxophilus:
glosses: The point that stands backward in an arrow, fishhook, etc., to prevent it from being easily extracted. Hence: Anything which stands out with a sharp point obliquely or crosswise to something else.
examples: text: to trade barbs
text: And she was the only girl in class who did not, sometime through the lesson, get a barb of sarcasm from Miss Brownell, though she made as many mistakes as the rest of them.
ref: 1923, Lucy Maud Montgomery, “Chapter 8”, in Emily of New Moon:
text: “Maybe I just wanted to come and see for myself if you were real. Or if you were a figment of my imagination.” The barb hurt, but she didn't blame him.
ref: 2018, Elle Wright, Wherever You Are (The Jacksons of Ann Arbor), HarperCollins, →ISBN:
text: His barbs about fake accounts have weakened trust in Twitter, just as the company prepares to moderate heated political discussions about an upcoming election in Brazil and the midterm elections this fall in the United States, misinformation experts said.
ref: 2022 July 11, Kate Conger, Mike Isaac, “How Elon Musk Damaged Twitter and Left It Worse Off”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
glosses: A hurtful or disparaging remark.
examples: text: The barbel is so called […]by reason of his barbs, or wattles at his mouth.
ref: 1653, Iz[aak] Wa[lton], The Compleat Angler or The Contemplative Man’s Recreation. Being a Discourse of Fish and Fishing, […], London: […] T. Maxey for Rich[ard] Marriot, […], →OCLC; reprinted as The Compleat Angler (Homo Ludens; 6), Nieuwkoop, South Holland, Netherlands: Miland Publishers, 1969, →ISBN:
glosses: A beard, or that which resembles it, or grows in the place of it.
topics: biology
natural-sciences
ornithology
glosses: One of the many side branches of a feather, which collectively constitute the vane.
topics: biology
ichthyology
natural-sciences
zoology
glosses: Any of various species of freshwater carp-like fish that have barbels and belong to the cyprinid family.
synonyms: Carolina whiting
king whiting
southern kingcroaker
southern kingfish
glosses: The sciaenid fish Menticirrhus americanus, found along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the United States.
topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
glosses: A hair or bristle ending in a double hook.
glosses: A muffler, worn by nuns and mourners.
synonyms: barbel
barble
glosses: Paps, or little projections, of the mucous membrane, which mark the opening of the submaxillary glands under the tongue in horses and cattle. The name is mostly applied when the barbs are inflamed and swollen.
examples: text: His loftie steed with golden sell
And goodly gorgeous barbes.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
glosses: A bit for a horse.
glosses: A plastic fastener, shaped roughly like a capital I (with serifs), used to attach socks etc. to their packaging.
Derived terms: taxonomic: Pethia bandula
word: bandula barb
word: barbate
word: barbel
word: barbet
word: barbless
word: barblet
taxonomic: Furnariidae spp.
word: barbtail
taxonomic: Threnetes spp.
word: barbthroat
word: barbwire
taxonomic: Pethia nigrofasciata
word: black ruby barb
word: burnt-tailed barb
word: debarb
word: Denison barb
word: Denison's barb
word: giant barb
word: hose barb
word: interbarb
taxonomic: Barbonymus gonionotus
word: Java barb
taxonomic: Pethia nigrofasciata
word: purplehead barb
word: red-line torpedo barb
taxonomic: Barbus conchonius
word: rosy barb
taxonomic: Barbonymus gonionotus
word: silver barb
word: soldier river barb
word: spanner barb
word: t-barb
taxonomic: Puntigrus tetrazona
word: tiger barb
word: unbarb