Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A currant-bun.

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

  • noun An Irish yeasted bread with sultanas and raisins.

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

  • noun a rich currant cake or bun

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Irish bairín breac.

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Examples

  • Nowadays, a barmbrack can be bought in the supermarket but doesn't usually contain all of the above-listed items -- many cakes only contain a ring.

    Halloween's Celtic Roots 2006

  • Another food associated with this festival is fruitcake or bairin breac (barmbrack) which had items in it that were used for foretelling the future -- a pea (or rag) meant poverty, a bean meant wealth, a religious medal meant the finder may enter a convent or seminary, a ring meant marriage, and a stick meant that the person who received this in their slice of cake would be beaten by the marriage partner.

    Halloween's Celtic Roots 2006

  • Maria superintended the distribution of the barmbrack and saw that every woman got her four slices.

    Dubliners 2003

  • Maria superintended the distribution of the barmbrack and saw that every woman got her four slices.

    Dubliners James Joyce 1911

  • Also two green ware plates, on one of which she puts a barmbrack with a knife beside it.

    The Devil's Disciple George Bernard Shaw 1903

  • ancestral town of Moneygall, Co Offaly (pop: 298) has come up with a celebratory barmbrack

    techno-culture 2009

Comments

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  • I stood looking at a barmbrack covered with poppy seeds ... it was a confectionary shop in - I forget the name of the street ... behind Liberty's.

    - Aidan Higgins, Langrishe, Go Down

    August 28, 2008