name · noun · verb · 10 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
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A warm and cozy place, especially a bedroom; a roost.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
7
noun
Meaning 7
A child.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Qualifier: certain Northern England dialects; otherwise obsolete; certain Northern England dialects; otherwise obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
8
verb
Meaning 8
To lay up in a barn.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: imbarn
Antonyms: none provided
9
noun
Meaning 9
an outlying farm building for storing grain or animal feed and housing farm animals
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: farm building
Narrower terms: cowbarn, cowshed, cow barn, cowhouse, byre, tithe barn
10
noun
Meaning 10
(physics) a unit of nuclear cross section; the effective circular area that one particle presents to another as a target for an encounter
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: b
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: area unit, square measure
History
Etymology
* Clipping of Barney. * Clipping of Barnett. * Clipping of Barnabas. * Clipping of Barnaby. * Clipping of Barnard.
From Middle English barn, bern, bærn, from Old English bearn, bern, contracted forms of Old English berern, bereærn (“barn, granary”), compound of bere (“barley”) and ærn, ræn (“dwelling, barn”), from Proto-West Germanic *raʀn, from Proto-Germanic *razną (compare Old Norse rann), from pre-Germanic *h1rh̥1-s-nó-, from Proto-Indo-European *h1erh1- (“to rest”). More at rest and barley. For the use as a unit of surface area, see w:Barn (unit) § Etymology.
From Middle English barn, bern, from Old English bearn (“child, son, offspring, progeny”) and Old Norse barn (“child”). Doublet of bairn. Cognate to West Frisian bern (“child, children”), Middle Dutch baren (“child”).
Across languages
Translations
189 source translations are retained for this English entry.