I. ˈbärn, ˈbȧn noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English bern, from Old English bereærn, from bere barley + ærn place — more at barley , rest
1.
a. : a usually large farm building originally for the storage of farm products and feed (as grain and hay) but now used as a general storage building (as for hay, drying tobacco, and farm equipment or vehicles) and usually for the housing of farm animals typically in separated sections
b. : the section of such a building that is used for the housing of farm animals (as horses or cows) and their feed
c. : a building for the housing of cattle or horses and their feed
stabling accommodations for nearly nine hundred horses in barns of the latest type — New Yorker
d. : a large building for the housing of a fleet of vehicles (as trolley cars or trucks) — compare carbarn
e. : an unusually large and usually bare building
a great barn of a hotel with roomy porches — W.A.White
2. railroad slang : roundhouse
3.
[so called from its having been considered “as big as a barn” with respect to nuclear bombardment]
: a unit of area that equals 10 -24 sq. cm. used in nuclear physics for measuring cross section
II. transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
: to store (a crop) in a barn
III. ˈbȧn
variant of bairn