barnacles

Noun

barnacle (plural barnacles)

1. A marine crustacean of the subclass Cirripedia that attaches itself to submerged surfaces such as tidal rocks or the bottoms of ships.
2. The barnacle goose.
3. (slang) In electrical engineering, a change made to a product on the manufacturing floor that was not part of the original product design.
4. (slang) 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.
5. (slang) A deprecated or obsolete file, image or other artifact that remains with a project even though it is no longer needed.

   Synonyms:

   cruft

6. (in plural, obsolete) 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

See all 13 meanings of barnacle