barnacle
Syllables: bar·na·cleUK/ˈbɑːnəkl̩/US/ˈbɑɹnəkl̩/
barnacle noun: a marine crustacean of the subclass Cirripedia that attaches itself to submerged surfaces such as tidal rocks or the bottoms of ships.
Noun
barnacle (plural barnacles)
- A marine crustacean of the subclass Cirripedia that attaches itself to submerged surfaces such as tidal rocks or the bottoms of ships.
- The barnacle goose.
- In electrical engineering, a change made to a product on the manufacturing floor that was not part of the original product design.
- On printed circuit boards, a change such as soldering a wire in order to connect two points, or addition such as an added resistor or capacitor, subassembly or daughterboard.
- A deprecated or obsolete file, image or other artifact that remains with a project even though it is no longer needed.
- Synonyms:
- cruft
- An instrument like a pair of pincers, to fix on the nose of a vicious horse while shoeing so as to make it more tractable.
- Synonyms:
- twitch
- A pair of spectacles.
- A good job, or snack easily obtained.
- A worldly sailor.
- Synonyms:
- shellback
Verb
barnacle (third-person singular simple present barnacles, present participle barnacling, simple past and past participle barnacled)
- To connect with or attach.
- Tokuda went over everything his grandfather had taught him, including the commentary that had barnacled on to the core knowledge.2009, Liza Dalby, Hidden Buddhas: A Novel of Karma and Chaos, Stone Bridge Press, published 2009, →ISBN, page 178
- To dream that some things just barnacle to your heart, and it might take years, or it might always just be there.2020, “YTK, Lunar Cartographer”, in Timmy's Unbuttoned Gen X Meditations, performed by Good Fuck
- To press close against something.
- He turned a corner to where he supposed the cupboard might be, to find Howie and Alanna barnacled together in an embrace.2002, Douglas Coupland, All Families Are Psychotic, Vintage Canada, published 2002, →ISBN, page 16
Proper noun capitalized: Barnacle
Barnacle
- A village in Shilton and Barnacle parish, Rugby borough, Warwickshire, England (OS grid ref SP3884).
- A surname.
barnacle meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Tagalog and Arabic
barnacle in Hindi
- marine crustacean
- बार्नेकल bārnekal
barnacle in Tamil
- அலசி, படகு அல்லது கப்பலில் ஒட்டி, ஊமைச்சி, எளிதில் அசைத்துவிட முடியாத தோழன், பாணக்கிள், பிளவுசிப்பி
barnacle in Tagalog
- marine crustacean
- taliptip
barnacle in Arabic
- marine crustacean
- بَرْنَقِيل barnaqīl
More languagesFewer languages
- barnacle in Malay
- teritip
- barnacle in Thai
- เพรียง priiang
- barnacle in Vietnamese
- hà
- barnacle in Myanmar
- ခရင်း hka.rang:
Examples of barnacle in a sentence
- The oyster is a sedentary mollusk; the barnacles are sedentary crustaceans.
- They are barnacles that accumulate in a mass of decaying metal.
- He'd have to be a dog-hearted barnacle not to taste your good intentions.
Synonyms of barnacle
Forms of barnacle
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | barnacles |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | barnacles |
| present participle | barnacling |
| past participle | barnacled |
| past | barnacled |
Origin of barnacle
Uncertain, with long-debated origin. From Middle English barnakille, from earlier bernake, bernekke, most likely from Old Northern French bernaque (“barnacle”) (compare French barnache), probably from Medieval Latin barneca (“limpet”), probably from Gaulish (compare Welsh brennig, Irish bairneach), from Proto-Celtic *barannīkos, from *barinā (“rock, rocky ground”) (compare Old Irish barenn (“boulder”)), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷr̥H- (“hill, mountain”) + Proto-Celtic *-ākos, from Proto-Indo-European *-kos, *-ḱos; for sense development, compare Ancient Greek λέπας (lépas, “rock”) which gave λεπάς (lepás, “limpet”). First attestations referred to the goose, with corresponding folklore (q.v.).
Words formed from barnacle
- acorn barnacle
- barnacle eater
- barnacle goose
- barnaclelike
- barnacle scale
- barnacly
- barnacular
- debarnacle
- giant barnacle
- goose barnacle
- gooseneck barnacle
- O'Shea's vent barnacle
- rock barnacle
- whale barnacle
Phrases with barnacle
Questions about barnacle
- What does barnacle mean?
- Barnacle means a marine crustacean of the subclass Cirripedia that attaches itself to submerged surfaces such as tidal rocks or the bottoms of ships.
- What is barnacle in Hindi?
- Barnacle in Hindi is बार्नेकल (bārnekal). See Barnacle meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is barnacle?
- Barnacle can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce barnacle?
- Barnacle is pronounced /ˈbɑːnəkl̩/ (UK).
- What is the plural of barnacle?
- The plural of barnacle is barnacles.
Words near barnacle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: barnacle (page history and authors); Barnacle (page history and authors); barnacle (Tamil Wiktionary) (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-au-barnacle.ogg.
Cite this entry: “barnacle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/barnacle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.