barley

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A grass in the genus Hordeum, native to temperate regions, having flowers in terminal, often long-awned spikes.
2. n. The grain of H. vulgare or its varieties, used for livestock feed, malt production, and cereal.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The name of a grain, and of the plant yielding it, belonging to the genus Hordeum, natural order Gramineæ. This grain has been cultivated from the very earliest times, when it formed an important article of food, as it still does where other cereals cannot be raised. It is largely employed for feeding animals, but its chief use is in the manufacture of fermented liquors, as beer, ale, and porter, and of whisky. No other grain can be cultivated through so great a range of climate, for it matures in Lapland, Norway, and Iceland, in 65° and 70° north latitude, and at an altitude of 11,000 feet in the Andes and Himalaya. The only cultivated species that has been found wild is the two-rowed or long-eared barley, H. distichon, a native of western Asia, but in cultivation in prehistoric times, as was also the six-rowed species, or winter barley, H. hexastichon. Of later origin is the common four-rowed species, spring or summer barley, H. vulgare. Fan-shaped barley, also called battledore- or sprat-barley, H. zeocriton, is perhaps only a cultivated form of the two-rowed species. Several varieties of these species are found in cultivation. The grain differs generally from wheat in retaining closely its husks; it is also somewhat less nutritious and palatable as an article of food. See Hordeum.
2. n. A cry used by children in certain games when a truce or temporary stop is desired.

Wiktionary

1. n. A strong cereal of the genus Hordeum, or its grains, often used as food or to make malted drinks.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Bot.) A valuable grain, of the family of grasses, genus Hordeum, used for food, and for making malt, from which are prepared beer, ale, and whisky.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. cultivated since prehistoric times; grown for forage and grain
2. n. a grain of barley