barbed
verb
Form of barb , past tense of barb.
Simple meaning
To furnish with barbs, or with that which will hold or hurt like barbs, as an arrow, fishhook.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
bahrbdIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈbɑɹbd
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
past tense of barb
To furnish with barbs, or with that which will hold or hurt like barbs, as an arrow, fishhook, spear, etc.
past tense of barb
To cover a horse in armor.
past tense of barb
Provide with barbs
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To furnish with barbs, or with that which will hold or hurt like barbs, as an arrow, fishhook, spear, etc.
Used this way, barbed is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
An aggressive remark directed at a person like a missile and intended to have a telling effect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
A region of northern Africa on the Mediterranean coast between Egypt and Gibraltar.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Strong wire with barbs at regular intervals used to prevent passage.
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Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.