barber

Pluralbarbers

Formsbarbers, barbering, barbered

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A person who cuts hair and trims or shaves beards as a trade, usually for male customers.

   The barber recommended a shorter style for the summer heat.

   Many barbers still offer a hot-towel shave as part of the service.

   Similarhairdresser, hairstylist, haircutter

   Note

   The name puts the beard first. Middle English barbour came through Anglo-Norman and Old French barbeor from barbe, "beard", and ultimately from Latin barba. The obsolete synonym cutbeard made the same point in plain English. The workplace usually appears in the possessive, a barber's shop. Beside hairdresser and hairstylist, barber is the word for a trade serving mostly male customers.

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To give someone a haircut or trim their beard.

   Skilled workers barber clients quickly during the morning rush.

   The old man barbered his grandson's hair out on the porch.

   Similartrim, cut

3. 3
   nounCanadacountable

   A storm carrying driving ice spicules formed from sea water, especially one on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, named for the cutting ice.

   The barber lashed the harbor with ice spicules sharp enough to sting exposed skin.

   Sailors in the gulf dreaded a winter barber more than heavy snow.

   Note

   A Canadian weather word built on a razor metaphor: frozen sea spray driven on the wind cuts like a barber's blade. It belongs above all to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is an ordinary countable noun (a barber, a winter barber), so readers outside Canada can easily mistake it for the haircutter unless the storm is clear from context.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   A foot soldier serving as a barber surgeon, who specialized in treating injuries sustained in battle.

   The wounded sergeant was carried to the barber for stitching.

   A barber moved among the fallen, binding wounds with whatever cloth he had.

   Similarsurgeon

   Note

   Here the word is shorthand for the older title barber surgeon. The craftsman with the razor also tended wounds, and on campaign the job fell to a foot soldier. In a battlefield scene, then, a barber is someone stitching and binding injuries, not trimming hair. Context is what separates this sense from the everyday haircutter.

5. 5
   verbintransitive

   To chatter or talk idly.

   The regulars barber away at the diner counter every morning.

   He barbered with the neighbors until well past midnight.

   Similarchatter, gossip, natter, gab, prattle

   Note

   American slang with a hard-boiled ring. Raymond Chandler gives it to a character in Farewell, My Lovely (1940): "I shouldn't ought to barber with you." The verb is intransitive and takes with for the person you are talking to. Keep it for dialogue or period color; in neutral prose, chat or talk does the job without the slang.

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