Word.ws English Dictionary

barney

Syllables: Bar·ney/ˈbɑːni//ˈbɑɹni/

barney noun: a lark, a romp, some fun.

Noun (1)

barney (plural barneys)

  1. (UK, obsolete, slang) A lark, a romp, some fun.
  2. (UK, obsolete, slang) A hoax, a humbug, something that is not genuine, a rigged or unfair sporting contest.
    • "Just keep it i' thy mind," entreated the other, as a sort of parting remembrance, "ut I won thee i' fair powell—one toss an' no barney.[…]"1865, Benjamin Brierley, Irkdale, volume 2, page 19
    • Blackguardly barneys called boxing competitions.1882 September 2, Evening News, column 6, page 1
  3. (obsolete, Harvard University slang) A poor recitation.
  4. (Australia, UK, slang) A noisy argument.
    • Gary and Mum went mental, and Gary phoned them up and had a right Barney with them.2007, Dave Brooks, For Nil Consideration, page 230
    • ‘They had a right barney,’ Dexter said with glee, between mouthfuls. ‘Bloke wouldn′t go. Said he′d write to his MP.’2009, Neville Conway, An Ornament to His Profession, page 45
  5. (Australia, UK, slang) A minor physical fight.
    • I got stuck in the middle of a real barney between a couple of tough coppers and a handful of hairy protesters, and I didn't enjoy it one single bit.1982, Ruth Dudley Edwards, Corridors of Death, page 157
    • But he doesn't seem to be so — so angry all the time, and it's ages since he and Aunt Annie had a real barney, with flying fists and screechings, that sort of thing.2010, Katie Flynn, The Liverpool Rose, page 200
  6. (Boston, US, dialectal) A student at Harvard University.
    • There goes that fuckin' Barney right now, with his fuckin' "skiin' trip." We should'a kicked that dude's ass.1997, Damon, Matt; Affleck, Ben, Good Will Hunting, spoken by Morgan O'Mally (Casey Affleck)
  7. Synonym of blimp (“soundproof cover for a video camera”).
    • You can create your own blimp or barney with anything that will deaden the camera noise, such as a changing bag, foam rubber, […]2015, Peter W. Rea, David K. Irving, Producing and Directing the Short Film and Video, page 209
    Synonyms:
    blimp

Adjective

barney (comparative more barney, superlative most barney)

  1. (UK, obsolete, slang) insane crazy, loony.

Verb

barney (third-person singular simple present barneys, present participle barneying, simple past and past participle barneyed)

  1. (obsolete, Harvard University slang) To recite badly; to fail.
    • What avails it to make a shine in Greek if the next hour one does a barney in calculus.1947, Samuel Hopkins Adams, Banner by the Wayside
  2. (Australia, UK) To argue, to quarrel.
    Synonyms:
    bicker

Noun (2)

barney (plural barneys)

  1. (US, pejorative, slang) A police officer, usually one who is inferior or overzealous.
    • She called the town Mayberry. She said Barney Fife was in charge.2005 March 3, “Scott Peterson's sister speaks out”, in MSNBC, archived from the original on 02 May 2012
    Synonyms:
    pig, fed

Proper noun capitalized: Barney

Barney (countable and uncountable, plural Barneys)

  1. A male given name transferred from the surname.
  2. A diminutive of the male given names Barnabas, Barnaby, Bernard, and Barnett.
  3. A male given name from Old English.
  4. A surname transferred from the given name.
  5. A surname from Old English [in turn from placenames] from the place name Barney, Old English "barn/barley island".
  6. A surname from Old English [in turn transferred from the given name].
  7. A village in Fulmodeston parish, North Norfolk district, Norfolk, England (OS grid ref TF9932).
  8. An unincorporated community in Faulkner County, Arkansas.
  9. An unincorporated community in Brooks County, Georgia.
  10. An unincorporated community in Madison County, Iowa.
  11. A minor city in Richland County, North Dakota.

Noun (3) capitalized: Barney

Barney (plural Barneys)

  1. A television character popular among children, especially one who is a vividly colored animal mascot.
    • She's not joking [bitch] when she says she wants to be the Barney of drag!2019 May 25, caterpillarmiss, “Nina is so Disney she brought her own character mascot”, in reddit.com
    • Everyone knew, nobody cared. At least the kids didn’t. The stick up the arse parents probably would have, but Pee-Wee was pretty much the Barney of the Gen-X era. As per usual, they weren’t paying attention anyway.2025 January 28, mpete76, “Paul Reubens (aka Peewee Herman) comes out *posthumously*”, in reddit.com

barney meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

barney in Hindi

बार्नी, बारनी

barney in Tamil

பார்னி

barney in Marathi

बार्नी, बारनी, बार्नीला

barney in Urdu

بارنی, بارنے
More languagesFewer languages
barney in Telugu
బార్నీ, బర్నీ, బార్ని
barney in Malayalam
ബാർണി, ബാർനി, ബാർണിയിലേക്ക്
barney in Kannada
ಅಬ್ಬರದ ಜಗಳ, ಗದ್ದಲದಿಂದ ಕೂಡಿದ ಜಗಳಾಟ
barney in Punjabi
ਬਾਰਨੀ, ਬਾਰ੍ਨੀ
barney in Gujarati
બાર્ની, બાર્નીને
barney in Odia
ବାର୍ନି, ବାର୍ନୀ, ବାର୍ନିଙ୍କୁ
barney in Nepali
बार्नी, बार्ने, बार्नीलाई

Examples of barney in a sentence

  • Gladstone shammed being ill, and that Sir Andrew Clark issued false bulletins, and that the whole thing was a barney from beginning to end.1884 April 13, The Referee, column 4, page 7:
  • ‘[…]I bet there was a right barney over her wearing a dress that exposed the rose tattoo!’ Turner concluded with a laugh.2010, Michael White, The Art of Murder, unnumbered page:
  • ‘I heard this crash, like the door was being kicked in, and then a load of shoutin′ an′ crashin′ about, like someone was havin' a real barney.’2011, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, Killing Time:

Synonyms of barney

All synonyms of barney

Forms of barney

Noun
pluralbarneys
pluralBarneys
Adjective
comparativemore barney
superlativemost barney
Verb
third-person singular presentbarneys
present participlebarneying
past participlebarneyed
pastbarneyed
Proper noun
pluralBarneys

Plural of barney: barneys

Origin of barney

Etymology unknown. Often incorrectly thought to be Cockney rhyming slang from Barney Rubble (“trouble”, from the character Barney Rubble on The Flintstones), it actually dates back to the 19th century and its origin is unknown.

From the character Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show.

From either the Old English personal name Bera (genitive singular Beran) or from Old English beren (“growing with barley”) + īeġ (“island”).

Words formed from barney

Phrases with barney

Questions about barney

What does barney mean?
Barney means a lark, a romp, some fun.
What is barney in Hindi?
Barney in Hindi is बार्नी, बारनी. See Barney meaning in Hindi.
How do you use barney in a sentence?
Gladstone shammed being ill, and that Sir Andrew Clark issued false bulletins, and that the whole thing was a barney from beginning to end.
What part of speech is barney?
Barney can be a noun, an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce barney?
Barney is pronounced /ˈbɑːni/ (UK).
What is the plural of barney?
The plural of barney is barneys.

Words near barney in the dictionary

  1. Barnettes
  2. Barnetts
  3. Barneveld
  4. Barnevelder
  5. Barnevelders
  6. barney
  7. Barney Rubble
  8. Barney style
  9. barney-mugging
  10. Barney-style
  11. barneyed

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: barney (page history and authors); Barney (page history and authors); barney (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); barney (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); barney (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); barney (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); barney (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); barney (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); barney (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); barney (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); barney (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); barney (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); barney (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: en-us-barney.ogg, EN-AU ck1 barney.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Barney.wav.

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