barn

/bɑrn/

/bɑn/

Other forms: barns

A barn is an outbuilding on a farm used to keep animals or crops safe and dry. A farmer might store hay in the upper part of a barn, and have stalls for horses in the main section.

In rural areas there are many barns, often built from wood and standing near a main farmhouse. Some barns have wide doors with stalls for animals inside, and a hayloft at the top, where hay or other crops can be stored. In Old English, a barn or bereærn literally meant "barley house," from bere, "barley," and aern, "house."

Definitions of barn

1. noun

   an outlying farm building for storing grain or animal feed and housing farm animals
   types:

   byre, cow barn, cowbarn, cowhouse, cowshed

   a barn for cows

   tithe barn

   barn originally built to hold tithes paid in kind and common in England

   type of:

   farm building

   a building on a farm
2. noun

   (physics) a unit of nuclear cross section; the effective circular area that one particle presents to another as a target for an encounter
   synonyms: b

   type of:

   area unit, square measure

   a system of units used to measure areas