barbed, wearing a barb. From barb, lit. a beard (F. barbe); hence, a piece of white plaited linen, passed over or under the chin, and reaching midway to the waist; chiefly worn by nuns. ‘Barbyd lyke a nonne’, Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1000.
bard; see [barred].
bard cater-tray, for barred cater-tray, a kind of false dice in which the throws cater (four) and tray (three) were barred, or prevented from being likely to appear. Dekker, Honest Wh., Pt. II, iv. 1 (Matheo). NED. quotes from Diceplay (1532), ed. 1850, p. 24:—‘a well-favoured die that seemeth good and square, yet is the forehead longer on the cater and tray than any other, way . . . Such be also called bard cater-tres, because, commonly, the longer end will, of his own sway, draw downwards, and turn up to the eye sice, sinke, deuis or ace; i.e. 6, 5, 2, or 1, but not 4 or 3’.
baretour, a fighting man, a brawler. Stanyhurst, tr. of Aen. i. 472; id. i. 142. Anglo-F. barettour (Rough List). See [baratour].
bargenette, bargynet, the name of a rustic dance, accompanied with a song. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, bk. i. c. 20. § 12; Gascoigne, ed. Hazlitt, i. 430. Variant of bargaret or bargeret; F. bergerette, ‘chant que les bergers chantaient le jour de Pâques’ (Hatzfeld). See NED. (s.v. Bargeret).
barley-bread, coarse food. Gascoigne, Steel Glas, 637.
barley-break, an old country-game; usually one couple, left in a middle den termed ‘hell’, had to catch the other two couples (who were allowed to separate and ‘break’ when hard pressed, and thus to change partners); when caught, they had to take their turn as catchers. Two Noble Kinsmen, iv. 3. 34; ‘A course at barley-break’, B. Jonson, Sad Shepherd, A. i (Clarion). The last couple left were said to be in hell: ‘Barly-break: or Last in Hel’, a poem by Herrick. See EDD.
barley-hood, a fit of ill-temper, brought on by drunkenness. So called because caused by barley, i.e. malt liquor. Skelton, El. Rummyng, 372. See EDD.
barn, a ‘bairn’, a child. Much Ado, iii. 4. 48. ME. barne, ‘infans’ (Cath. Angl.). OE. bearn (Anglian barn).
barnacles, barnacle-geese. Drayton, Pol. xxvii. 305 (where the fable is given). See EDD. (s.v. Barnacle, sb.1).