Množina: barns

ETYM Old Eng. bern, AS. berern, bern; bere barley + ern, aern, a close place. Related to Barley.
1. An outlying farm building for storing grain or animal feed and housing farm animals.
2. (Physics) A unit of nuclear cross section.
Unit of cross-sectional area of atom or atomic nucleus.
Farm building traditionally used for the storage and processing of cereal crops and hay. On older farmsteads, the barn is usually the largest building. It is often characterized by ventilation openings rather than windows and has at least one set of big double doors for access. Before mechanization, wheat was threshed by hand on a specially prepared floor inside these doors.
Tithe barns were used in feudal England to store the produce paid as a tax to the parish priest by the local occupants of the land. In the Middle Ages, monasteries often controlled the collection of tithes over a wide area and, as a result, constructed some enormous tithe barns.

Množina: barn buildings

Množina: barn burners

ETYM So called in allusion to the fable of the man who burned his barn in order to rid it of rats.
1. Someone who burns down a barn.
2. (Informal) A impressively successful event.

Množina: barn dances

Evening of dancing, traditionally to celebrate the end of the harvest in farming areas of the US. The main entertainment is “square dancing”, which remains popular on both sides of the Atlantic.
The dancing is accompanied by any available instruments— often a violin or accordion—and involves a set sequence of movements directed by a “caller” who shouts instructions.

Množina: barn floors

Singular of barn floors is barn floor.

Množina: barn owls

Mottled buff and white owl often inhabiting barns and other structures; important in rodent control; SYN. Tyto alba. barnowl

Singular of barn owls is barn owl.

Množina: barn spiders

An orange and tan spider with darkly banded legs that spins an orb web daily; SYN. Araneus cavaticus.

Množina: barn stables

barnstable

Množina: barn swallows

Common swallow of North America and Europe that nests in barns etc.; SYN. chimney swallow, Hirundo rustica.

Množina: barn-balls

Množina: barn-raisings

A gathering for the purpose of erecting a barn — compare bee

St (lived 1st century AD) In the New Testament, a “fellow laborer” with St Paul; he went with St Mark on a missionary journey to Cyprus, his birthplace. Feast day 11 June.

Množina: barnabies