BARNACLE
Bar"na*cle, n. Etym: [See Bernicle.]
Defn: A bernicle goose.
BARNACLE
Bar"na*cle, n. Etym: [OE. bernak, bernacle; cf. OF. bernac, and Prov.
F. (Berri) berniques, spectacles.]
1. pl. (Far.)
Defn: An instrument for pinching a horse's nose, and thus restraining him.
Note: [Formerly used in the sing.]
The barnacles . . . give pain almost equal to that of the switch.
Youatt.
2. pl.
Defn: Spectacles; — so called from their resemblance to the barnacles used by farriers. [Cant, Eng.] Dickens.
BARNBURNER Barn"burn`er, n. [So called in allusion to the fable of the man who burned his barn in order to rid it of rats.]
Defn: A member of the radical section of the Democratic party in New York, about the middle of the 19th century, which was hostile to extension of slavery, public debts, corporate privileges, etc., and supported Van Buren against Cass for president in 1848; —opposed to Hunker. [Political Cant, U. S.]