adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective

1. 1
   Lacking a barb. not-comparable

   "We used barbless fishhooks in the catch-and-release stream, in order to minimize harm to the fish."

2. 2
   Of a feather, lacking barbs. not-comparable

Example

More examples

"We used barbless fishhooks in the catch-and-release stream, in order to minimize harm to the fish."

Etymology

From barb + -less.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.