Definitions

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

  • noun A small barb or pointed projection, especially one of the small projections fringing the edges of the barbs of feathers.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In botany, the inner row of teeth in the peristome of certain mosses.
  • noun A small barb, as of a plant; a little beard. Also barbula.
  • noun In ornithology, one of a series of pointed, barb-like processes fringing the barbs of a feather.
  • noun The part of a helmet which protects the cheeks and chin.

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

  • noun A very minute barb or beard.
  • noun (Zoöl.) One of the processes along the edges of the barbs of a feather, by which adjacent barbs interlock. See Feather.

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

  • noun Any of the secondary barbs that form a fringe of small projections on a feather.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin barbula, diminutive of barba, beard; see bhardh-ā- in Indo-European roots.]

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Examples

  • Through a common magnifying glass each tiny barbule was seen to be ringed with gray and silvery white, so finely that the rings could hardly be seen.

    In Nesting Time Olive Thorne Miller 1874

  • Instead, if you were to slice a barbule like a loaf of bread, the resulting cross-section would be shaped like a boomerang.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2010

  • Instead, if you were to slice a barbule like a loaf of bread, the resulting cross-section would be shaped like a boomerang.

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2010

  • But the fact that the rachis itself is made of barbule-like fibres suggests that the barbules came first.

    ScienceBlogs Channel : Life Science 2009

  • “It’s the size, shape, number, and pigmentation of nodes and their placement along the barbule that are key,” he patiently explained.

    CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PATRICIA CORNWELL 1993

  • Plus, they aren’t located throughout the barbule but are more distal, or located more toward the end of the barbule.

    CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PATRICIA CORNWELL 1993

  • Plus, they aren’t located throughout the barbule but are more distal, or located more toward the end of the barbule.

    CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PATRICIA CORNWELL 1993

  • “It’s the size, shape, number, and pigmentation of nodes and their placement along the barbule that are key,” he patiently explained.

    CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PATRICIA CORNWELL 1993

  • “It’s the size, shape, number, and pigmentation of nodes and their placement along the barbule that are key,” he patiently explained.

    CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PATRICIA CORNWELL 1993

  • Plus, they aren’t located throughout the barbule but are more distal, or located more toward the end of the barbule.

    CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PATRICIA CORNWELL 1993

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