Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various brightly colored tropical birds of the order Piciformes that have a broad bill with bristles at the base and are closely related to the toucans.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A small beard.
  • noun 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.
  • noun A variety of dog having long curly hair; a poodle.
  • noun In ornithology, any bird of the families Capitonidæ (or Megalæmidæ) and Bucconidæ.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A variety of small dog, having long curly hair.
  • noun 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.
  • noun A larva that feeds on aphids.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Any of many birds of the family Capitonidae, within the order Piciformes
  • noun A breed of small dog, with long curly hair.
  • noun A larva that feeds on aphids.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun small brightly colored stout-billed tropical bird having short weak wings

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Probably from barb.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French, from barbe ("beard", "long hair of certain animals")

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Examples

  • 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).

    Caqueta moist forests 2008

  • Chaplin's barbet (Lybius chaplini) is endemic to south central Zambia, concentrated in the Kafue basin between Kafue National Park and Lusaka.

    Zambezian flooded grasslands 2008

  • 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.

    Deccan thorn scrub forests 2008

  • 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.

    KOTA BELUD BIRD SANCTUARY Glenda Larke 2007

  • 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.

    Archive 2007-12-01 Glenda Larke 2007

  • He mentioned a half-dozen species, including the yellowheaded weaver, the rosy barbet, and the Javanese three-toed woodpecker.

    The Song of The Dodo David Quammen 2004

  • He mentioned a half-dozen species, including the yellowheaded weaver, the rosy barbet, and the Javanese three-toed woodpecker.

    The Song of The Dodo David Quammen 2004

  • Chee peep, chee peep, a barbet called stridently in the branches of the kaffir boom tree under which they waited.

    When the Lion Feeds Smith, Wilbur 1964

  • There, bending over barbet pieces, I overheard fragments of their conversation.

    Under the Rose Frederic Stewart Isham

  • 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 William Griffith

Comments

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  • 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

    December 17, 2008

  • 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.

    March 10, 2011