barren
/'bærən/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Adjective:
- Completely lacking or devoid of something: Used to describe a complete absence of a particular quality, feature, or element.
- Incapable of producing offspring; sterile: Used to describe a person, animal, or plant that cannot reproduce.
- Unproductive; not bearing fruit or vegetation: Used to describe land that is too poor to produce crops or support plant life.
- Bleak and lifeless; providing no shelter or sustenance: Used to describe a landscape that is harsh, empty, and inhospitable.
Noun:
- A tract of barren land; an uninhabited and unproductive wilderness: Used to refer to a large area of land that is worthless for cultivation or habitation.
Usage Examples
Adjective:
- The argument was barren of logic. (The argument completely lacked logic.)
- After the illness, she found she was barren. (After the illness, she discovered she could not have children.)
- Farmers struggled to grow anything on the barren soil. (Farmers had difficulty cultivating the unproductive soil.)
- They trekked across the barren landscape. (They walked across the bleak and lifeless landscape.)
Noun:
- Explorers got lost in the frozen barrens. (Explorers became lost in the unproductive frozen wilderness.)
Advanced Usage
- "Barren of": This is the standard prepositional phrase used to indicate a complete lack of something.
- His speech was barren of new ideas. (His speech contained no new ideas at all.)
- Figurative Use: Often used metaphorically to describe periods of time, efforts, or minds that yield no results or creativity.
- The artist went through a barren period. (The artist experienced an unproductive period with no creative output.)
Variants and Related Words
- Barrenness (n): The state or quality of being barren.
- The barrenness of the desert was overwhelming. (The unproductiveness of the desert was overwhelming.)
Synonyms
- Adjective: sterile, infertile, unproductive, desolate, bleak, stark, devoid, destitute, empty.
- Noun: wasteland, desert, wilderness.
Antonyms
- Adjective: fertile, productive, fruitful, rich, lush.
Related Phrases and Idioms
- "Barren as a brick": An informal simile emphasizing extreme barrenness or lack of fertility.
- That old field is as barren as a brick. (That old field is completely unproductive.)
- "To fall on barren ground": An idiom meaning that ideas, suggestions, or efforts produce no result or are ignored.
- His warnings fell on barren ground. (His warnings were ignored and had no effect.)
Adjective
- completely wanting or lacking
- writing barren of insight
- young recruits destitute of experience
- innocent of literary merit
- the sentence was devoid of meaning
- not bearing offspring
- a barren woman
- learned early in his marriage that he was sterile
- providing no shelter or sustenance
- bare rocky hills
- barren lands
- the bleak treeless regions of the high Andes
- the desolate surface of the moon
- a stark landscape
Noun
- an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation
- the barrens of central Africa
- the trackless wastes of the desert