See Also: barn(encyclopedia)
Old Barn(tourism)
Barn(medicine)
barn(dictionary)
barn owl(encyclopedia)
barn(dictionary)
Barn of Barrington(tourism)
barn dance(dictionary)
Dutch barn(dictionary)
Barn - Poker(gambling)

barn (iou)



barn noun1 & verb. [b¨»:n]

A. noun.
A covered building for the storage of grain, hay, straw, flax, etc. OE.
Dutch barn: see DUTCH adjective. ROBIN HOOD's barn.
A building for housing livestock, vehicles, etc. N. Amer. L18.
receiving barn: see RECEIVING adjective.
A large unduly plain building or room. M20.
Physics. A unit of area equal to 1028 sq. metre, used in expressing nuclear cross-sections. M20.
Comb.: barn-ball US a children's game involving bouncing a ball off the gable of a building; barn-burner N. Amer. colloq. an excellent, rousing, or remarkable person or event; barn dance (a) an informal social occasion for country dancing (orig. one held in a barn); (b) a dance for a number of couples forming a line or circle, with the couples moving along it in turn; barn door the large door of a barn; fig. a target etc. too large to be missed; nail to the barn door: see NAIL verb; barn-gallon Hist. a measure of two imperial gallons, orig. used in the milk-trade; barnlot US the ground upon or around which a barn stands; barn owl an owl of the genus Tyto; esp. T. alba, which usu. has a white face and underside and frequently nests in farm buildings; barnstorm verb intrans. [back-form. from barnstormer] tour etc. as a barnstormer (chiefly as barnstorming verbal noun or ppl adjective); barnstormer (orig. & chiefly N. Amer.) (a) an itinerant actor; (b) a politician making a rapid electioneering tour; (c) an aviator who tours the country giving aerobatic displays, an adventurous pilot; barn swallow N. Amer. the common swallow, Hirundo rustica.
b. verb trans. House in a barn; garner. LME.