Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having barbs.
  • adjective Cutting; stinging.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Shaved; trimmed; having the beard dressed.
  • Furnished with barbs, as an arrow, the point of a fish-hook, and the like: as, “arrows barbed with fire,”
  • “a barbed proboscis,”
  • In heraldry: Having barbs: said of the rose used as a bearing. The barbs are commonly colored green, and the blazon is a rose gules barbed proper.
  • Having gills or wattles, as a cock: as, a cock sable, barbed or (that is, a black cock having golden gills). Also called wattled.
  • Having the ends made with barbs like those of an arrow-head: said especially of a cross of this form. Also called bearded.
  • Same as barded.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Accoutered with defensive armor; -- said of a horse. See barded (which is the proper form.)
  • adjective Furnished with a barb or barbs.
  • adjective a wire, or a strand of twisted wires, armed with barbs or sharp points. It is used for fences.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Having barbs
  • adjective heraldry Bearded (also applied to roses).
  • verb Simple past tense and past participle of barb.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective having or covered with protective barbs or quills or spines or thorns or setae etc.
  • adjective capable of wounding

Etymologies

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