How to use bairn in a sentence

15 example sentences · noun, verb

Bairn means a child or baby. Example: “She moved about the country like a ghost, gathering herbs in dark loanings, lingering in kirkyairds, and casting a blight on innocent bairns.”

Examples of bairn by meaning

nounA child or baby.

She moved about the country like a ghost, gathering herbs in dark loanings, lingering in kirkyairds, and casting a blight on innocent bairns.1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
The least ah kin dae is take an interest in the bairn’s welfare.1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 219

verbTo get (someone) pregnant.

Go and kick the man that bairned your Nancy.1992, Robin Jenkins, Happy for the Child, page 108
Just because he's signed up fir the fuckin army again, six bastard years this time, and bairned some slag.1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 171

More sentences with bairn

It wis a saicont bairn, an Derriakin wis muckle-boukit, sae the birth gaed quick.2011, Wulf Kurtoglu, Caroline Macafee, Braken Fences, →ISBN, page 195. From the entry howdie
As the saying goes in the north-east, ‘shy bairns get nowt’!2007, “Rob [Rob has a Six-year-old Son who was Infected with Cytomegalovirus as a Baby]”, in Jill Harrison, Matthew Henderson, Rob…. From the entry shy bairns get nowt
Moreover, from her earliest days the bairn had some glimmerings of grace.1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide. From the entry grace
Tell her the bairns will be home in a bittock.1934, ArthurRansome, Coot Club. From the entry bittock
To think that such a lowly kern Should dare to dream to be allied By wedlock to a royal bairn!1903, James Duff Law, Here and There in Two Hemispheres, page 105. From the entry kern
A seven month bairn can survive.'2011, Catherine M. Byrne, Follow the Dove, →ISBN, page 110. From the entry howdie
As the hours went by Willa herself became a little tipsy and her mother-in-law warned her she'd better watch she didn't get her bairn drunk.2007, Joan Lingard, After You've Gone, Allison & Busby, →ISBN. From the entry stotious
Ah well, shy bairns get nowt.1994, Fiona Cooper, A Skyhook in the Midnight Sun, London; New York, N.Y.: Serpent's Tail, →ISBN, page 121. From the entry shy bairns get nowt
A neep lantern bobbing by the end of the palisade, near the Smith house, where a clutch of bairns stood in the footpath waiting for him.2003, Heather Spears, The Flourish, page 347. From the entry neep lantern
Seventy beds keeps he there teeming mothers are wont that they lie for to thole and bring forth bairns hale so God’s angel to Mary quoth.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 14: Oxen of the Sun]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey]…. From the entry thole
Boarded-out bairns should not be massly congregated in remote, rural areas - because, however grim it sounds, the fact remains that the area takes on an 'in the Trade' aspect.2000, Isobel Murray, Jessie Kesson: Writing Her Life : a Biography, page 133. From the entry massly

Meaning of bairn

noun A child or baby.
verb To get (someone) pregnant.

Full definition of bairn

Questions about bairn in a sentence

How do you use bairn in a sentence?: Bairn is used as a noun and verb. For example: “She moved about the country like a ghost, gathering herbs in dark loanings, lingering in kirkyairds, and casting a blight on innocent bairns.”
What is a short sentence with bairn?: “A seven month bairn can survive.'”
What does bairn mean?: Bairn means a child or baby.

Adapted from Wiktionary: bairn (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use bairn in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/bairn. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.