barnacle

¹ American  

[bahr-nuh-kuhl] / ˈbɑr nə kəl /

noun

1. any marine crustacean of the subclass Cirripedia, usually having a calcareous shell, being either stalked goose barnacle and attaching itself to ship bottoms and floating timber, or stalkless rock barnacle, or acorn barnacle and attaching itself to rocks, especially in the intertidal zone.

2. a person or thing that clings tenaciously.

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barnacle ² American  

[bahr-nuh-kuhl] / ˈbɑr nə kəl /

noun

1. Usually barnacles. an instrument with two hinged branches for pinching the nose of an unruly horse.

2. British Dialect. barnacles, spectacles.

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barnacle British  

/ ˈbɑːnəkəl /

noun

1. any of various marine crustaceans of the subclass Cirripedia that, as adults, live attached to rocks, ship bottoms, etc. They have feathery food-catching cirri protruding from a hard shell See acorn barnacle goose barnacle

2. a person or thing that is difficult to get rid of

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barnacle Scientific  

/ bär′nə-kəl /

1. Any of various small marine crustaceans of the subclass Cirripedia that form a hard shell in the adult stage and attach themselves to underwater surfaces, such as rocks, the bottoms of ships, and the skin of whales.

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Other Word Forms

• barnacled adjective

Etymology

Origin of barnacle¹

First recorded in 1580–85; perhaps a conflation of barnacle “barnacle goose” with Cornish brennyk, Irish báirneach “limpet,” Welsh brenig “limpets,” reflecting the folk belief that such geese, whose breeding grounds were unknown, were engendered from rotten ships' planking; barnacle goose

Origin of barnacle²

1350–1400; Middle English bernacle bit, diminutive of bernac < Old French < ?