bare

bare

bare¹ [ber]

adj.

barer, barest [ME bar < OE bær < IE * bhoso-s < ? base * bhes-, to rub off > SAND]

1.

a) without the natural or customary covering [bare wooden floors]

b) without clothing; naked [bare legs]

2. without equipment, supplies, or furnishings; empty [a bare room, a bare larder]

3. without embellishment; unadorned; simple; plain [the bare facts]

4. without tools or weapons: obsolete except in bare hands

5. threadbare

6. no more than; mere [a bare subsistence wage]

vt.

bared, baring

to make bare; uncover; strip; expose

SYN.- STRIP¹

——————

lay bare

to open to view; uncover; expose

bareness

n.

SYN.- BARE¹, in this comparison, implies the absence of the conventional or appropriate covering [bare legs, bare headed ]; NAKED implies the absence of clothing, either entirely or from some part, and connotes a revealing of the body [a naked chest ]; NUDE, which is somewhat euphemistic for NAKED, is commonly applied to the undraped human figure in art; BALD suggests a lack of natural covering, esp. of hair on the head; BARREN implies a lack of natural covering, esp. vegetation, and connotes destitution and fruitlessness [barren lands ]

bare² [ber]

vt., vi.

archaic pt. of BEAR¹