[a. F. barbe-r (Cotgr.); cf. OF. barbier; f. barbe beard.]
1. To shave or trim the beard of (a person). Obs. in general use.
1587. Turberv., Trag. T. (1837), 53. Doe barbe that boysterous beard.
1615. A. Stafford, Heav. Dogge, 64. I will stare my headsman in the face with as much confidence as if he came to barbe mee.
1663. Cowley, Cutter Coleman-St., II. v. II. 824. Neat Gentlemen … tho’ never wash’d nor barb’d.
1693. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen., 206. To Barb … Tondere.
1864. Daily Tel., 15 Feb., 5/1. There is a hairdresser’s saloon attached to every hotel, where you can be shaved, or ‘barbed,’ as the locution is, shampooed, tittivated, curled, and oiled, like an Assyrian bull.
b. absol. or intr. (for refl.)
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. 50. Their noble science of barbing.
1665. Pepys, Diary, 27 Nov. Sat talking, and I barbing against to-morrow.
2. transf. in various senses: a. To clip (wool, cloth, coin, etc.). b. To mow (grass, etc.). c. To file off the bur or rough edges of metal-work. † d. The specific term for carving a lobster.
1483. Act 1 Rich. III., viii. Pream., Great quantitie of Wolls … which ben … barbed and clakked.
1508. Bk. Kerving, in Babees Bk. (1868), 265. Barbe that lopster.
1535. Act 27 Hen. VIII., xiii. § 1. They [cloths] must be newly dressed, barbed, shorne.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XVII. xxiii. The small sprigs must eftsoons be barbed (as it were) and shaven clean off.
1610. B. Jonson, Alch., I. i. (1616), 608. I’ll bring … thy necke Within a nooze, for laundering gold, and barbing it.
1652. Benlowes, Theoph., XII. ii. 236. The Mower, who … Wieldeth the crooked Sythe … To barb the flowrie Tresses of the verdant plains.
1863. Sala, Capt. Dang., II. vii. 226. Gambling bullies … throwing their Highmen, or barbing gold.
† 3. fig. a. To give a trimming or dressing to. b. To clip, cut back. Obs.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, V. vi. § 2. Justine having recovered forces lighted on Tiberius and barbed him after the same fashion.
1657. Trapp, Comm. Esther ii. 1. Vices may be barbed or benumbed, not mastered.
4. To furnish (an arrow, hook, etc.) with barbs.
1611. [see BARBED 4].
1667. Milton, P. L., VI. 546. Ratling storm of Arrows barbd with fire.
1759. Mason, Caractacus, 24 (R.). Haste, Evelina, barb my knotty spear.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Life in Wilds, v. 68. I will shew you how the natives barb them [arrows].
fig. 1777. Sheridan, Sch. Scandal, Portr. 232. She barbs with wit those darts too keen before.
1810. Southey, Kehama, X. xx. Flowers … With their petals barb’d the dart.
5. To pierce with, or as with, a barb. rare.
1803. Jane Porter, Thaddeus, ix. It is your wretchedness that barbs me to the heart.
