Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Any of various marine crustaceans of the subclass Cirripedia that in the adult stage form a hard shell which remains attached to submerged surfaces such as rocks and ships' hulls, and that have feathery appendages used for filter feeding.
- noun The barnacle goose.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To fix or attach, as a barnacle upon the bottom of a ship.
- noun A kind of bit or muzzle used to restrain an unruly horse or ass; now (usually in the plural), an instrument consisting of two branches joined at one end with a hinge, placed on a horse's nose to restrain him while being shod, bled, or dressed.
- noun Hence An instrument of torture applied in a similar way to persons.
- noun plural Spectacles.
- To apply barnacles to: as, to
barnacle a horse. - noun A species of wild goose, Anser bernicla or Bernicla leucopsis, also called
barnacle-goose or bernacle-goose. - noun A species of stalked cirriped, Lepas anatifera, of the family Lepadidæ, found hanging in clusters by the long peduncle to the bottoms of ships, to floating timber, or to submerged wood of any kind; the goose-mussel, fabled to fall from its support and turn into a goose (see def. 1).
- noun Anything resembling a barnacle (in sense 2).
- noun A person holding on tenaciously to a place or position; one who is a useless or incompetent fixture in an office or employment; a follower who will not be dismissed or shaken off.
- noun [Cf.
barnard .] A decoy swindler.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Zoöl.) Any cirriped crustacean adhering to rocks, floating timber, ships, etc., esp. (a) the sessile species (genus Balanus and allies), and (b) the stalked or goose barnacles (genus Lepas and allies). See
cirripedia , andgoose barnacle . - noun (Zoöl.) the orange filefish.
- noun (Zoöl.) a bark louse (
Ceroplastes cirripediformis ) of the orange and quince trees in Florida. The female scale curiously resembles a sessile barnacle in form. - noun A bernicle goose.
- noun (Far.) An instrument for pinching a horse's nose, and thus restraining him.
- noun Cant, Eng. Spectacles; -- so called from their resemblance to the barnacles used by farriers.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
marine crustacean of thesubclass Cirripedia thatattaches itself tosubmerged surfaces such as tidal rocks or thebottoms ofships . - noun The
barnacle goose . - noun engineering, slang In
electrical engineering , achange made to a product on the manufacturing floor that was not part of the original product design. - noun computing, slang On printed
circuit boards , a change such as soldering a wire in order to connect two points, or addition such as an addedresistor orcapacitor ,subassembly ordaughterboard . - noun obsolete An instrument like a pair of
pincers , to fix on the nose of a vicioushorse while shoeing so as to make it more tractable. - noun archaic, UK A nickname for
spectacles . - noun slang, obsolete A good job, or snack easily obtained.
- verb To connect with or attach.
- verb To press close against something.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun European goose smaller than the brant; breeds in the far north
- noun marine crustaceans with feathery food-catching appendages; free-swimming as larvae; as adults form a hard shell and live attached to submerged surfaces
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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A barnacle is a ship, and a splinter is a “bandwagon.”
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Fastened to the first IMPs like a barnacle was a small phonelike box, with a cord and headset.
Where Wizards Stay Up Late Katie Hafner 2001
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Fastened to the first IMPs like a barnacle was a small phonelike box, with a cord and headset.
Where Wizards Stay Up Late Katie Hafner 2001
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MAX MUELLER38 has suggested that this word was really derived from Hibernicula, the name thus referring to Ireland, where the birds were caught; but common opinion associated the barnacle goose with the shell-fish known as the barnacle (which is found on timber exposed to the sea), supposing that the former was generated out of the latter.
Bygone Beliefs 1969
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For several centuries there was prevalent over the whole of civilised Europe a most extraordinary superstition concerning the small Arctic bird resembling, but not so large as, the common wild goose, known as the barnacle or bernicle goose.
Bygone Beliefs 1969
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Cirripedes afford a good instance of this; even the illustrious Cuvier did not perceive that a barnacle was a crustacean: but a glance at the larva shows this in an unmistakable manner.
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I was born back from tidewater and don't know as the barnacle does stick to the oyster.
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The bernicle, or brent goose, is interesting from the curious superstition which formerly prevailed respecting it, as it was supposed to have sprung from the shell called the barnacle or lepas, which adheres to the bottoms of ships, and which has a fringe of cirri projecting from between its valves bearing some faint resemblance to the feathers of a bird.
The Lady's Country Companion: or, How to Enjoy a Country Life Rationally Jane 1845
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The Barnacle goose or clakis of Willoughby, anas erythropus of Linnaeus, called likewise tree-goose, anciently supposed to be generated from drift wood, or rather from the _lepas anatifera_ or multivalve shell, called barnacle, which is often found on the bottoms of ships.
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 07 Robert Kerr 1784
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A barnacle is a type of arthropod belonging to infraclass Cirripedia in the subphylum Crustacea, and is hence related to crabs and lobsters.
Gaea Times (by Simple Thoughts) Breaking News and incisive views 24/7 2010
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