Definition Definition

barren - Meaning and Examples

Meaning of 'barren' (Webster Dictionary)

1 . Barren [ a.]
- Incapable of producing offspring; producing no young; sterile; -- said of women and female animals.
- Not producing vegetation, or useful vegetation; /rile.
- Unproductive; fruitless; unprofitable; empty.
- Mentally dull; stupid.
2 . Barren [ n.]
- A tract of barren land.
- Elevated lands or plains on which grow small trees, but not timber; as, pine barrens; oak barrens. They are not necessarily sterile, and are often fertile.

Meaning of 'barren' (Princeton's WordNet)

1 . barren [ n]
Meaning (1):
- an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation
Example in sentence:
  • the barrens of central Africa;
  • the trackless wastes of the desert
2 . barren [ s]
Meaning (2):
- not bearing offspring
Example in sentence:
  • a barren woman;
  • learned early in his marriage that he was sterile
Meaning (3):
- providing no shelter or sustenance
Example in sentence:
  • a stark landscape;
  • bare rocky hills;
  • barren lands;
  • the bleak treeless regions of the high Andes;
  • the desolate surface of the moon
Meaning (4):
- completely wanting or lacking
Example in sentence:
  • innocent of literary merit;
  • the sentence was devoid of meaning;
  • writing barren of insight;
  • young recruits destitute of experience