Forms: 1 bere-ern (bæren), 1–2 berern, 1–4 beren, 1–6 bern, 3 berrn, 4–6 berne, (5 beern, beyrne, baerne), 5–7 barne, 7– barn. [OE. bęre-ern lit. ‘barley-place,’ f. bęre barley + ærn, ern, place, closet, store-room; reduced already in OE. to bęrern, bęren, bęrn, whence ME. bern, mod. barn.]
1. A covered building for the storage of grain; and, in wider usage, of hay, straw, flax, and other produce of the earth.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Luke xii. 24. Ðæm ne is hordern ne ber-ern.
c. 975. Rushw. G., ibid. Bere-ern.
c. 1000. Ags. G., ibid. Nabbað hiʓ heddern ne bern.
c. 1200. Ormin, 10486. Sammenn alle þe clene corn & don itt inn hiss berrne.
c. 1220. Bestiary, 263, O. E. Misc., 9. Ne bit ȝe (= she) nowt de barlic beren abuten.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Wyf’s T., 15. Thropes and bernes, shepnes and dayeries.
c. 1475. in Wright, Voc., 274. Orium, beyrne.
1489. Caxton, Faytes of A., II. xxiv. 138. A grete baerne within the said forest.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 26. [Rye] mowen … taketh more rowme in the barne than shorne corne dothe.
1551. Robinson, trans. More’s Utop., 160. Corne or graine … in the rich men’s bernes.
1610. Shaks., Temp., IV. i. 111. Barnes, and Garners, neuer empty.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 74. And bursts the crowded Barns, with more than promis’d Gains.
1820. Wordsw., Sonn. Duddon, xiii. One small hamlet … Clustering with barn and byre, and spouting mill.
1872. Jenkinson, Eng. Lakes, 24. The [Grasmere] island has a clump of firs and a grey barn upon it.
fig. a. 1520. Myrr. Our Ladye, 211. Aungels myghte gather them in to euerlastynge barnes.
b. Applied to: A barn-like building for worship.
a. 1721. Prior, To F. Shepherd. So at pure barn of Loud Non-con, Where with my grannam I have gone.
2. Comb. and Attrib., as barn barley, -builder, form, -loft, -sweepings; also barn-burner, nickname of the radical section of the Democratic party in U.S.; barn-cellar, a room under a barn, generally used as a cow-house; barn-floor, the floor of a barn, hence what is there stored; barnful, as much as a barn will contain; barn-gallon, a measure containing two imperial gallons, used in the milk-trade; barn-like a., like, or like that of, a barn; barn(s)man, a laborer in a barn, a thresher; barn-owl, a British bird of prey (Strix flammea), also called White, Church, and Screech Owl; barn-shovel, one used for corn; barn-stormer, applied depreciatively to a strolling player; whence barn-storming; barn-swallow, the common house-swallow; barnward adv., towards the barn; barn-yard, the enclosure round a barn, a farm-yard.
1880. Jefferies, Gt. Estate, 152. *Barn barley … i. e. that which had been stored in a barn.
a. 1610. Babington, Wks. (1622), 218. That rich *Barne-builder in the Gospell.
a. 1848. N. Y. Tribune, in Bartlett, Dict. Amer., 23. This school of Democrats was termed *Barnburners, in allusion to the story of an old Dutchman, who relieved himself of rats by burning down his barns which they infested,—just like exterminating all banks and corporations, to root out the abuses connected therewith.
1842. T. Parker, in Weiss, Life & Corr., I. 184. A bull … tied up in the corner of the *barn-cellar.
1611. Bible, 2 Kings vi. 27. Whence shall I helpe thee? out of the *barne floore?
1863. Kingsley, Water-Bab., vii. 272. Her decks were swept as clean as a *barn floor.
1847. Yeowell, Anc. Brit. Ch., xii. 129. Very old Welsh Churches are of the *barn form.
a. 1619. Fotherby, Atheom., II. viii. § 4. Not by the bushell … but by the whole *Barnefull.
1662. Gerbier, Princ. (1665), 36. Those *Barn-like Roofs of many Noble Persons Palaces.
1835. Beckford, Recoll., 174. The *barn-like saloon on their ground-floor.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., III. IV. v. 235. In cellars, *barn-lofts, in caves.
c. 1800. A. Carlyle, Autobiog. (1860), 25. I took him for a grieve or *barnman.
1861. Smiles, Engineers, II. 112. A sufficient number of *barnsmen for thrashing straw.
1674. Ray, Eng. Birds, 83. The common *Barn-owl or White Owl, Aluco minor.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., xvii. (1852), 378. The short-eared and white *barn-owls of Europe.
1446. Wills & Inv. N. C., I. (1835), 95. Whetridell … hopper, *barnshoile.
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 6 June, 5/1. If this be *barn-storming, Betterton and Garrick were *barn-stormers.
1851. D. Wilson, Preh. Ann., Scot. (1863), I. 416. Less skill than … the common *barn-swallow displays in the construction of its nest.
1840. Carlyle, Heroes, ii. 96. Chaff, chopped straw, *barn-sweepings.
1884. Roe, in Harper’s Mag., July, 247/2. The horses’ heads were turned *barnward.
1513–75. Diurn. Occurr. (1833), 49. Thay brunt tua *barny-yairdis in Nether Keith.
1850. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., vii. 49. A *barn-yard belonging to a large farming establishment.
