Word.ws English Dictionary

barbs

barbs is the plural of barb.

barbs is the third-person singular simple present indicative of barb.

Meaning of barb

Noun

barb (plural barbs)

  1. The point that stands backward in an arrow, fishhook, etc., to prevent it from being easily extracted. Hence: Anything which stands out with a sharp point obliquely or crosswise to something else.
    • Having two barbs or points.1545, Roger Ascham, Toxophilus
  2. (figuratively) A hurtful or disparaging remark.
    • to trade barbs
  3. A beard, or that which resembles it, or grows in the place of it.
    1. A barbel on a fish's face.
      • The barbel is so called […]by reason of his barbs, or wattles at his mouth.1653, Iz[aak] Wa[lton], The Compleat Angler or The Contemplative Man’s Recreation. Being a Discourse of Fish and Fishing, […], London: […] T. Maxey for Rich[ard] Marriot, […], →OCLC; reprinted as The...
  4. One of the many side branches of a feather, which collectively constitute the vane.
  5. Any of various species of freshwater carp-like fish that have barbels and belong to the cyprinid family.
    Synonyms:
    barbel

See all 24 meanings of barb

Proper noun capitalized: Barbs

Barbs

  1. A diminutive of the female given name Barbara.
    • “Hey, Barbs—you can’t let stuff like this divert your energy, you know? It's Will’s karma. He has to work it through.”1998 March, S. M. Stirling, Island in the Sea of Time (Nantucket series; 1), New York, N.Y.: New American Library, →ISBN, page 291

Noun capitalized: Barbs

Barbs

  1. (plural) plural of Barb

Origin of barbs

Clipping of Barbara + -s (hypocoristic suffix).

Phrases with barbs

Questions about barbs

What does barbs mean?
Barbs means a diminutive of the female given name Barbara.
What is barbs the plural of?
Barbs is the plural of barb.
What part of speech is barbs?
Barbs can be a proper noun or a noun.

Words near barbs in the dictionary

  1. Barbre
  2. Barbres
  3. Barbrey
  4. Barbrook
  5. Barbrooks
  6. barbs
  7. barbtail
  8. barbtails
  9. barbthroat
  10. barbthroats
  11. barbud

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: barbs (page history and authors); Barbs (page history and authors); barb (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-barbs.wav.

Cite this entry: “barbs.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/barbs. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.