barb
To furnish with barbs, or with that which will hold or hurt like barbs, as an arrow,…To furnish with barbs, or with that which will hold or hurt like barbs, as an arrow, fishhook, spear, etc.
» The barb on fishhooks make them difficult to remove.
zachleigh · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
5 sensesTo furnish with barbs, or with that which will hold or hurt like barbs, as an arrow, fishhook, spear, etc.
(Nigeria)To cut (hair).
To cover a horse in armor.
(obsolete)To shave or dress the beard of.
(obsolete)To clip; to mow.
- provide with barbs
Examples
7 sentencesThe barb on fishhooks make them difficult to remove.
He took my barbs in his usual good-natured way.
My coat got caught on a barb on the barbed wire.
He couldn't come up with a pithy barb on the spot.
The candidates insulted each other with cutting barbs, name-calling and personal attacks.
Origin
Corruption of bard.Corruption of bard.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
barbs, barbing, barbed, barbedLessons for this word
3 lessons- A1Present simple — Because it is a verb
- A1Past simple, regular verbs — Because of its past form
- A2Present perfect: introduction — Because of its past participle
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.