BAR'REN, adjective [from the same root as bare.]

1. Not producing young, or offspring; applied to animals.

2. Not producing plants; unfruitful; steril; not fertile; or producing little; unproductive; applied to the earth.

3. Not producing the usual fruit; applied to tree, etc.

4. Not copious; scanty; as a scheme barren of hints.

5. Not containing useful or entertaining ideas; as a barren treatise.

6. Unmeaning; uninventive; dull; as barren spectators.

7. Unproductive; not inventive; as a barren mind.

BAR'REN, noun In the States west of the Allegheny, a word used to denote a tract of land, rising a few feet above the level of a plain, and producing trees and grass. The soil of these barrens is not barren as the name imports, but often very fertile. It is usually alluvial, to a depth sometimes of several feet.

2. Any unproductive tract of land; as the pine barrens of South Carolina.