Word.ws English Dictionary

bare

UK/bɛə//bɛɹ/

bare adjective: minimal; that is or are just sufficient. Also the simple past of bear.

Adjective

bare (comparative barer, superlative barest)

  1. Minimal; that is or are just sufficient.
    • a bare majority
    • Nature indeed furnishes us with the bare necessaries of life, but traffic gives us a great variety of what is useful1711 May 29 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], “FRIDAY, May 19, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 69; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume I, New...
    Synonyms:
    mere, minimal
  2. Naked, uncovered.
    • "I refuse to show myself out of doors in my bare feet," the Centipede said. "I have to get my boots on again first."1961, Roald Dahl, James and the Giant Peach, Knopf, page 46
  3. Having no supplies.
    • a room bare of furniture
    • The cupboard was bare.
  4. Having no decoration.
    • The walls of this room are bare — why not hang some paintings on them?
  5. Having had what usually covers (something) removed.
    • The trees were left bare after the swarm of locusts devoured all the leaves.
    Antonyms:
    covered
  6. (Multicultural-London-English, Yorkshire, not comparable, slang) A lot or lots of.
    • It's taking bare time.
    • The phone would answer, we'd go round the corner, pass something to someone, go back and we'd have bare dough, we'd have bare money in our pocket.2005 July 13, Ryan, quotee, “‘We like the easy money. We like the lifestyle’”, in The Guardian
  7. With head uncovered; bareheaded.
    • When once thy foot enters the church, be bare. / God is more there, then thou: for thou art there / Onely by his permiſſion.[1633], George Herbert, “The Church-porch”, in [Nicholas Ferrar], editor, The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to...
    Synonyms:
    uncovered
  8. Without anything to cover up or conceal one's thoughts or actions; open to view; exposed.
    • Bare in thy guilt how foul muſt thou appear?1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 56, line 903
  9. (figuratively) Mere; without embellishment.
    • bare essentials; bare necessities
    • Those who lent him money lent it on no security but his bare word.1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, Chapter XII
    Synonyms:
    alone, simple, only, very, just, mere
  10. Threadbare, very worn.
    • for it appears, by their bare liveries, that they live by your bare words.c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
    Synonyms:
    shabby, worn-out
  11. Not insured.
    • Before the company was formed, the firm went bare for about three months in 1985, but it now has prior acts coverage for that time.1987 December 1, ABA Journal, page 86
    • That a firm chooses to go bare has no effect on whether it gets sued or not.1994, David S. Haviland, The Architect's Handbook of Professional Practice, page 310

Adverb

bare

  1. (dialectal) Barely.
    • The fiend had bare departed when Ailie came over the threshold to find the auld carline glunching over the fire.1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
    • He finally came back to himself and asked why the furor. "Why," Lucy said, "because this is Christmas Eve. We have bare enough time to get ready for the ball, after dinner, as it is."2009, Allan Cole with Chris Bunch, The Wars of the Shannons
  2. (Multicultural-London-English, slang) Very; significantly.
    • That pissed me off bare.
    • That's bare stupid.
  3. (slang) Without a condom.
    • While none of the participants had complete confidence in condoms, they continued to use them as a better alternative than “going in bare".2000, Northeast African Studies - Volume 7, page 119
    • It would be fine to have these women bare, without condoms.2002, The Society of Malawi Journal - Volumes 55-58, page 70

Noun

bare (plural bares)

  1. The surface, the (bare) skin.
    • In sad good earnest, sir, you have toucht the very bare of naked truth [...]1599, John Marston, Antonio and Mellida
    • Vancha clasped the bare of my neck and squeezed amiably.2002, Darren Shan, Hunters of the dusk: 7
  2. Surface; body; substance.
    • You have touched the very bare of naked truth.c. 1599 (date written), I. M. [i.e., John Marston], The History of Antonio and Mellida. The First Part. […], London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Mathewe Lownes, and Thomas Fisher, […], published 1602...
  3. That part of a roofing slate, shingle, tile, or metal plate, which is exposed to the weather.

Verb

bare (third-person singular simple present bares, present participle baring, simple past and past participle bared)

  1. (figuratively, sometimes, transitive) To uncover; to reveal.
    • She bared her teeth at him.
    • The tabloid newspaper promised to bare all.

Proper noun capitalized: Bare

Bare (countable and uncountable, plural Bares)

  1. A surname.
  2. A suburb of Morecambe, Lancaster district, Lancashire, England, served by Bare Lane railway station (OS grid ref SD4564).

Also used as

bare is also the simple past of bear.

bare meaning in Sanskrit, Tagalog, Persian and Vietnamese

bare in Sanskrit

naked, uncovered
ऋक्ष ṛkṣa

bare in Tagalog

naked, uncovered
hubad
having had what usually covers (something) removed
nahubaran

bare in Persian

naked, uncovered
برهنه berahne
having no decoration
لخت loxt

bare in Vietnamese

naked, uncovered
trần, trơ, trụi

Examples of bare in a sentence

  • You shagged bare lads, you're a little sket / Have you heard your bars?2016 December 3, Millie B, “Soph Aspin Send”, performed by Millie B:
  • “I've bare enough for these two, much less fill your belly.”2011, Elizabeth Vaughan, Warprize:

All 40 example sentences with bare

Synonyms of bare

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

10 more antonymsFewer antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of bare

Forms of bare

Adjective
comparativebarer
superlativebarest
Noun
pluralbares
Verb
third-person singular presentbares
present participlebaring
past participlebared
pastbared
Proper noun
pluralBares

Plural of bare: bares

Origin of bare

From Middle English bare, bar, from Old English bær (“bare, naked, open”), from Proto-West Germanic *baʀ, from Proto-Germanic *bazaz (“bare, naked”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰosós, from *bʰos- (“bare, barefoot”). Cognate with Scots bare, bair (“bare”), Saterland Frisian bar (“bare”), West Frisian baar (“bare”), Dutch bar (“bare”), German bar (“bare”), Swedish bar (“bare”), Icelandic ber (“bare”), Lithuanian basas (“barefoot, bare”), Polish bosy (“barefoot”).

From Middle English baren, from Old English barian, from Proto-Germanic *bazōną (“to bare, make bare”).

Inflected forms.

Words formed from bare

Phrases with bare

26 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with bare

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about bare

What does bare mean?
Bare means minimal; that is or are just sufficient.
What is bare in Sanskrit?
Bare in Sanskrit is ऋक्ष (ṛkṣa). See Bare meaning in Sanskrit.
How do you use bare in a sentence?
You shagged bare lads, you're a little sket / Have you heard your bars?
What part of speech is bare?
Bare can be an adjective, an adverb, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce bare?
Bare is pronounced /bɛə/ (UK).

Words near bare in the dictionary

  1. Bardwell Park
  2. Bardwell Valley
  3. Bardwells
  4. bardy
  5. bardy grub
  6. bare
  7. bare all
  8. bare beater
  9. bare beaters
  10. bare beating
  11. bare board

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bare (page history and authors); Bare (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-bear.ogg.

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