bare

¹

[ bair ]

adjective

, bar·er, bar·est.

1. without covering or clothing; naked; nude:

   bare legs.

   Synonyms: undressed

2. without the usual furnishings, contents, etc.:

   bare walls.

   Synonyms: barren, empty, stark, plain

3. open to view; unconcealed; undisguised:

   his bare dislike of neckties.

4. unadorned; bald; plain:

   the bare facts.

5. (of cloth) napless or threadbare.
6. scarcely or just sufficient; mere:

   the bare necessities of life.

7. Obsolete. with the head uncovered; bareheaded.

verb (used with object)

, bared, bar·ing.

1. to open to view; reveal or divulge:

   to bare one's arms; to bare damaging new facts.

   Synonyms: expose, uncover

bare

²

[ bair ]

verb

, Archaic.

1. simple past tense of bear ¹.

bare

¹

/ bɛə /

verb

1. archaic.
   a past tense of bear 1

bare

²

/ bɛə /

adjective

1. unclothed; exposed: used esp of a part of the body
2. without the natural, conventional, or usual covering or clothing

   a bare tree

3. lacking appropriate furnishings, etc

   a bare room

4. unembellished; simple

   the bare facts

5. prenomial just sufficient; mere

   he earned the bare minimum

6. with one's bare hands
   without a weapon or tool

verb

1. tr to make bare; uncover; reveal

Derived Forms

• ˈbareness, noun

Other Words From

• barish adjective
• bareness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of bare¹

First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English bær; cognate with Old Frisian ber, Dutch baar, Old Saxon, Old High German, German bar, Old Norse berr; akin to Armenian bok “naked,” Lithuanian bãsas, Russian bosóĭ “barefoot”

Word History and Origins

Origin of bare¹

Old English bær ; compare Old Norse berr , Old High German bar naked, Old Slavonic bosǔ barefoot

Synonym Study

Bare, stark, barren share the sense of lack or absence of something that might be expected. Bare, the least powerful in connotation of the three, means lack of expected or usual coverings, furnishings, or embellishments: bare floor, feet, head. Stark implies extreme severity or desolation and resultant bleakness or dreariness: a stark landscape; a stark, emotionless countenance. Barren carries a strong sense of sterility and oppressive dullness: barren fields; a barren relationship. See mere ¹.

Example Sentences

Konijnendijk said he devised the benchmark to help set a 'bare minimum' for nature in cities.

From Science Daily

“It’s very sharp and it’s almost impossible to climb with bare hands,” says Hamid, the Iranian refugee who crossed it in 2019.

From BBC

Murray wasn’t worried about baring his abs for the film — it was the dancing that terrified him.

From Los Angeles Times

When he gave evidence later in the day, his daughter Caroline shouted at him across the room that she was sick of his lies, laying bare the anger within the family.

From BBC

I’ve enjoyed stripping the songs back down to the bare bones and enjoyed that they’re still sturdy enough to withstand that kind of stripping away.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• divulge
• expose
• uncover

Bare Vs. Bear

What’s the difference between bare and bear?

Bare can be an adjective that means uncovered (as in bare feet) or empty or without the usual contents (as in bare cabinets or bare walls), or a verb meaning to reveal or open to view (as in bare your secrets). As a verb, bear commonly means to endure something negative (as in I can’t bear to watch) or to carry, hold up, or support (as in The roof can’t bear that much weight), while as a noun it refers to the big furry animal (like grizzly bears and polar bears).

As a verb, bear is often used in the context of holding or carrying things, including in literal, physical ways (as in bear a load or bear weight) and in figurative ones (as in bear a grudge).

Bare is most commonly used as an adjective, usually involving something uncovered or empty.

To remember the difference in spelling, remember that bears have ears, and they are able to bear a lot of weight because of how big and strong they are, but they are never bare because they are covered in fur.

Here’s an example of bare and bear used correctly in a sentence.

Example: Why does the bear never wear shoes? Because he prefers bare feet.

Want to learn more? Read the full breakdown of the difference between bare and bear.

Quiz yourself on bare vs. bear!

Should bare or bear be used in the following sentence?

He chose to _____ his soul to her by showing her his poetry.

About This Word

What else does bare mean?

Bare is UK slang for very or lots of.

Where does bare come from?

The slang bare originates in Multicultural London English in the 1990s and was widely reported on as UK slang in the 2010s in the mainstream presence.

A contributor to its spread is the popular, London-based genre of rap music called Grime, which features aggressive, hard-hitting beats and lyrics. In their 2016 song “Too Many Man,” for instance, Grime group Boy Better Know sang about the club: “We need some more girls in here…Bare man not enough girls in here.” That track featured the “Godfather of Grime” himself, Wiley, who wrote “bare hype, bare bullshit, bare drama” on his 2015 mixtape Tunnel Vision Volume 1.

In 2013, a school in south London attempted to ban students from using words like bare on campus, believing it hurt their employment chances later in life.

How is bare used in real life?

Bare is used as an intensifier. If you earn bare money, you earn “a lot” of money.

being an estate agent was one of my ideas might actually get into it tbh you earn bare money

— kian (@ky6hh) October 18, 2018

If you are bare hungry, as another example, then you are “extremely” hungry.

If you were in the presence of bare women, as many who use the word often claim to be, that would be “many girls.”

Thanks to the popularity of Grime music and the diversity of London, bare has spread beyond UK slang into mainstream youth slang. It’s still closely associated with London slang, however.

More examples of bare:

“School slang ban is bare extra, innit?“
—Felix Allen, The Sun (headline), October, 2013

Note

This content is not meant to be a formal definition of this term. Rather, it is an informal summary that seeks to provide supplemental information and context important to know or keep in mind about the term’s history, meaning, and usage.