bare Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb lay bare
    • bare your breasts
    • bare your feelings
  2. verb make public
    publicize; publicise; air.
    • She aired her opinions on welfare
  3. verb lay bare
    denude; denudate; strip.
    • denude a forest
  4. adjective satellite completely unclothed
    naked; au naturel; nude.
    • bare bodies
    • naked from the waist up
    • a nude model
  5. adjective satellite lacking in amplitude or quantity
    scanty; spare.
    • a bare livelihood
    • a scanty harvest
    • a spare diet
  6. adjective not having a protective covering
    unsheathed.
    • unsheathed cables
    • a bare blade
  7. adjective lacking its natural or customary covering
    • a bare hill
    • bare feet
  8. adjective satellite just barely adequate or within a lower limit
    marginal.
    • a bare majority
    • a marginal victory
  9. adjective satellite apart from anything else; without additions or modifications
    simple; mere.
    • only the bare facts
    • shocked by the mere idea
    • the simple passage of time was enough
    • the simple truth
  10. adjective satellite lacking a surface finish such as paint
    unfinished.
    • bare wood
    • unfinished furniture
  11. adjective satellite providing no shelter or sustenance
    barren; desolate; stark; bleak.
    • bare rocky hills
    • barren lands
    • the bleak treeless regions of the high Andes
    • the desolate surface of the moon
    • a stark landscape
  12. adjective satellite having everything extraneous removed including contents
    stripped.
    • the bare walls
    • the cupboard was bare
  13. adjective satellite lacking embellishment or ornamentation
    spare; plain; unornamented; unembellished.
    • a plain hair style
    • unembellished white walls
    • functional architecture featuring stark unornamented concrete

WordNet

Bare adjective
Etymology
OE. bar, bare, AS. bær; akin to D. & G. baar, OHG. par, Icel. berr, Sw. & Dan. bar, OSlav. bos barefoot, Lith. basas; cf. Skr. bhas to shine .
Definitions
  1. Without clothes or covering; stripped of the usual covering; naked; as, his body is bare; the trees are bare.
  2. With head uncovered; bareheaded.
    When once thy foot enters the church, be bare. Herbert.
  3. 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 ! Milton.
  4. Plain; simple; unadorned; without polish; bald; meager. "Uttering bare truth." Shak.
  5. Destitute; indigent; empty; unfurnished or scantily furnished; -- used with of (rarely with in) before the thing wanting or taken away; as, a room bare of furniture. "A bare treasury." Dryden.
  6. Threadbare; much worn.
    It appears by their bare liveries that they live by your bare words. Shak.
  7. Mere; alone; unaccompanied by anything else; as, a bare majority. "The bare necessaries of life." Addison.
    Nor are men prevailed upon by bare of naked truth. South.
Bare noun
Definitions
  1. Surface; body; substance. R.
    You have touched the very bare of naked truth. Marston.
  2. (Arch.) That part of a roofing slate, shingle, tile, or metal plate, which is exposed to the weather.
Bare transitive verb
Etymology
AS. barian. See Bare, a.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Bared(); present participle & verbal noun Baring
Definitions
  1. To strip off the covering of; to make bare; as, to bare the breast.
Bare
Definitions
  1. Bore; the old preterit of Bear, v.

Webster 1913