I. ˈbärnə̇kəl, ˈbȧn-, -nēk- noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English bernak, bernacle, from Old French bernac
1.
a. barnacles plural : an instrument for restraining a horse by pinching his nose
b. : a conventionalized heraldic representation of a pair of barnacles — sometimes used in plural
2. obsolete : an instrument of torture resembling a pair of barnacles — usually used in plural
3. barnacles plural , dialect England : spectacles
II. noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English barnakylle, alteration of bernekke, bernake, of Celtic origin; akin to Welsh brenig limpets, Cornish brennyk, Breton bernic barnacle, Middle Irish bairnech limpet; from a popular belief in the Middle Ages that the goose grew from the shellfish; probably akin to Middle Irish bern cleft, Latin forare to bore — more at bore
1. : barnacle goose
2. : any of numerous marine crustaceans constituting the order Cirripedia, being free-swimming in the larval state but permanently fixed as adults and protected by a calcified shell of several pieces, and having usually six pairs of biramous feathery cirri that are modified limbs and are protruded and drawn back with a grasping motion serving to catch the food that floats within reach — see acorn barnacle , goose barnacle
3.
a. : a person who clings tenaciously (as to an easy or comfortable job) or who sticks close to another against his will
forced to avoid predatory people and barnacle friends — Corra Harris
b. : anything (as a venerable trait, institution, or vestige from the past) that mars or hinders (as progress of any kind)
the judicial process is clumsy and covered with barnacles — T.W.Arnold
[s]barnacle.jpg[/s] [
barnacle 2: 1 peduncle, 2 cirri
]
III. transitive verb
( barnacled ; barnacled ; barnacling -k(ə)liŋ ; barnacles )
: to fasten or attach (oneself) securely or persistently to
there are the legends, the “scandals” … which barnacle such a public figure — Trevor Allen
: cover with something so that it clings persistently
the ancient Egyptians … barnacled their heads with lumps of nard — D.W.Dresden