BARB

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does barb mean? 

• BARB (noun)
  The noun BARB has 4 senses:

1. an aggressive remark directed at a person like a missile and intended to have a telling effect

2. the pointed part of barbed wire

3. a subsidiary point facing opposite from the main point that makes an arrowhead or spear hard to remove

4. one of the parallel filaments projecting from the main shaft of a feather

  Familiarity information: BARB used as a noun is uncommon.

• BARB (verb)
  The verb BARB has 1 sense:

1. provide with barbs

  Familiarity information: BARB used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BARB (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An aggressive remark directed at a person like a missile and intended to have a telling effect

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

barb; dig; gibe; jibe; shaft; shot; slam

Context example:

she takes a dig at me every chance she gets

Hypernyms ("barb" is a kind of...):

comment; input; remark (a statement that expresses a personal opinion or belief or adds information)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "barb"):

cheap shot (an unnecessarily aggressive and unfair remark directed at a defenseless person)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The pointed part of barbed wire

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("barb" is a kind of...):

point (sharp end)

Holonyms ("barb" is a part of...):

barbed wire; barbwire (strong wire with barbs at regular intervals used to prevent passage)

Derivation:

barb (provide with barbs)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A subsidiary point facing opposite from the main point that makes an arrowhead or spear hard to remove

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("barb" is a kind of...):

point (sharp end)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "barb"):

fluke (a barb on a harpoon or arrow)

Holonyms ("barb" is a part of...):

arrowhead (the pointed head or striking tip of an arrow)

hook (a curved or bent implement for suspending or pulling something)

lance; shaft; spear (a long pointed rod used as a tool or weapon)

Sense 4

Meaning:

One of the parallel filaments projecting from the main shaft of a feather

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("barb" is a kind of...):

fibril; filament; strand (a very slender natural or synthetic fiber)

Holonyms ("barb" is a part of...):

vane; web (the flattened weblike part of a feather consisting of a series of barbs on either side of the shaft)

• BARB (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they barb    ... he / she / it barbs   
Past simple: barbed   
Past participle: barbed   
-ing form: barbing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Provide with barbs

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

barbed wire

Hypernyms (to "barb" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

barb (the pointed part of barbed wire)

 Context examples 

It was a barbed arrow-head in my breast; it tore me when I tried to extract it; it sickened me when remembrance thrust it farther in.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Those who saw him go noted that he carried his bow, with a goodly supply of bone-barbed arrows, and that across his shoulder was his father's big hunting-spear.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Because the dinosaur feathers do not have a well-developed shaft, called a rachis, but do have other features of feathers — barbs and barbules — the researchers inferred the rachis was likely a later evolutionary development that these other features.

(Scientists find dinosaur feathers preserved in amber, Wikinews)

Negore was armed with a miserable bone-barbed spear, and he kept his rabbit-skin robe wrapped closely about him, and though the day was warm he shivered as with an ague.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

In various unrevealed capacities he had come in contact with such people but always with indiscernible barbed wire between.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)