Barbel
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A freshwater fish of the genus Barbus or other closely related genera.
"The Barble fishes, if one of them chance to be engaged, will set the line against their backes, and with a fin they have, toothed like a sharp saw, presently saw and fret the same asunder."
- 2 slender tactile process on the jaws of a fish wordnet
- 3 Whisker-like sensory organs, located around the mouth of certain fish, including catfish, carp, goatfish, sturgeon, and some types of shark.
- 4 A barb or pap under the tongues of horses and cattle.
Example
More examples"The Barble fishes, if one of them chance to be engaged, will set the line against their backes, and with a fin they have, toothed like a sharp saw, presently saw and fret the same asunder."
Etymology
PIE word *bʰardʰéh₂ From Middle English barbel, from Old French barbel, from Vulgar Latin *barbellus, from Late Latin barbulus, diminutive of Latin barbus. By surface analysis, barb (“sharp, extruding structure”) + -el (diminutive suffix).
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.