Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Any of various brightly colored tropical birds of the family Capitonidae that have a broad bill with bristles at the base and are related to the toucans.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A small beard.
- n. A part of the helmet in use in the sixteenth century; either the fixed beaver or mentonnière, or the lower part of the vizor when made in two pieces, so that either could be raised without the other. Compare barbute. Also spelled barbett.
- n. A variety of dog having long curly hair; a poodle.
- n. In ornithology, any bird of the families Capitonidæ (or Megalæmidæ) and Bucconidæ. It is a book-name which has followed the generic names Capito and Bucco in their various applications to numerous zygodactyl birds with large heads, stout bills, and prominent rictal vibrissæ, inhabiting both the old and the new world, and has consequently no exact technical meaning.
Wiktionary
- n. Any of many birds of the family Capitonidae, within the order Piciformes
- n. A breed of small dog, with long curly hair.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A variety of small dog, having long curly hair.
- n. A bird of the family
Bucconidæ , allied to the Cuckoos, having a large, conical beak swollen at the base, and bearded with five bunches of stiff bristles; the puff bird. It inhabits tropical America and Africa. - n. A larva that feeds on aphids.
WordNet 3.0
- n. small brightly colored stout-billed tropical bird having short weak wings
Etymologies
- Probably from barb1.
Examples
“Jerdon's courser Rhinoptilus bitorquatus Phasianidae Ceylon junglefowl Gallus lafayetii Capitonidae Yellow-fronted barbet Megalaima flavifrons An asterisk signifies that the species 'range is limited to this ecoregion.”
“Also found here are the plain-winged antwren (Myrmotherula behni), dusky spinetail (Synallaxis moesta), lemon-throated barbet (Eubucco richardsoni), and zone-tailed hawk (Buteo albonotatus).”
“Chaplin's barbet (Lybius chaplini) is endemic to south central Zambia, concentrated in the Kafue basin between Kafue National Park and Lusaka.”
“Along the main road, there was a licensed stall selling wild birds stuck in impossibly small cages, including fledgling hill mynas obviously taken from the nest and as yet unable to feed themselves, shamas, doves, hanging parrots, even a young barbet.”
“He mentioned a half-dozen species, including the yellowheaded weaver, the rosy barbet, and the Javanese three-toed woodpecker.”
“Chee peep, chee peep, a barbet called stridently in the branches of the kaffir boom tree under which they waited.”
When the Lion Feeds
“There, bending over barbet pieces, I overheard fragments of their conversation.”
“The birds seen were the jay, barbet, red-and-black-headed, variegated short-wing, large ditto of”
Journals of Travels in Assam, Burma, Bhootan, Afghanistan and the Neighbouring Countries
“A neatly-cut circular hole, about the size of a rupee, on the lower surface or the side of a branch is assuredly the entrance to the nest of a coppersmith, a green barbet, or a woodpecker.”
“The _tonk_, _tonk_, _tonk_ of the coppersmith is rarely heard in October; during the greater part of the cold weather this barbet is a silent creature, reminding us of its presence now and then by calling out _wow_ softly, as if half ashamed at the sound of its voice.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘barbet’.
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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She did what?
For a more inclusive list, see sionnach's tom, dick and harry.
Also see the list Bad Sentences by abigail.katydid, Hollywood, june bug, June bug, Maryland, Marywood, Marymount, joy ride, joystick, barbet, barbwire, pennywhistle and 62 more...
yarb I'm a bold man, Haskins. Have you ever tried catching a berry with your beak? I have and it's not at all difficult. Mar 10, 2011
yarb It would be a bold man indeed who would say that a toucan, with his huge, unwieldy beak and his appetite for tiny berries which he must throw into the air and catch in his throat on their way down because of it, is better off than the reasonably normal barbet from which he apparently arose.
- Caryl P. Haskins, Of Ants and Men, 1939, p. 216 Dec 17, 2008