[See CORN.]
1. = BARLEY (the plant or grain).
1382. Wyclif, 2 Sam. xiv. 30. The feelde of Ioab biside my feelde hauynge barli corn [1388 ripe barli].
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 25/1. Barly corne, ordeum.
1836. Thirlwall, Greece, II. xiv. 196. The juice of the vine or the barleycorn.
b. Personified as John Barleycorn: esp. as the grain from which malt liquor is made.
c. 1620. (title) in Pepysian Library, A pleasant new ballad … of the bloody murther of Sir John Barleycorn.
17[?]. John Barleycorn, in Percy’s Reliques. John Barleycorn has got a beard Like any other man.
1786. Burns, Scotch Drink, iii. John Barleycorn, Thou king o’ grain.
2. A grain of barley.
1588. Greene, Perimedes, 15. Preferre not a Barly-corne before a precious Iewell.
1612. Woodall, Surg. Mate, Wks. (1653), 25. A full barley corne will well serve, or a good wheat corne.
1824. Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. I. (1863), 83. A bantam-cock … turning so scornfully from the barley-corns which Annie is flinging towards him.
3. The length of a grain of barley taken as a measure, 1/3 of an inch; formerly also 1/4 of an inch.
1607. Recorde, Gr. Arts, 326. It is ordained that 3 Barly Cornes dry and round, shall make vp the measure of an inch.
1611. Cotgr., Grain … a Barlie-corne, or the fourth part of an ynch.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. iii. 136. Barly Corn, is the length of 4 Poppy seeds, and 3 Corns make an Inch.
1729. Shelvocke, Artillery, I. 76. The Barley-corn (the fourth part of an Inch) is subdivided into 5 Poppy Seeds.
1873. Miss Broughton, Nancy, I. 21. If father … move his head one barley-corn, we are all dead men.
4. Building. ‘A little cavity between the mouldings of joiners’ work … made with a kind of plane of the same name.’ Chambers, Cycl. Supp., 1753.
