barer

Pluralbarers

1. 1
   adjective

   Comparative of bare.

   The landscape grew barer the farther north they traveled.

   Her apartment felt barer once the old furniture was hauled away.

   Note

   The regular -er comparative, with barest as its superlative, compares bare in its senses of uncovered, stripped or undecorated. D. S. Barrie writes in Railway Magazine (1955) of hills that "grow barer" as the railway climbs, and grow is its natural partner. The slang bare meaning "lots of," from Multicultural London English and Yorkshire, cannot be compared, so barer never means "more of."

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A person who bares or exposes something previously covered or concealed.

   As the barer of the committee's secrets, she drew sharp criticism from her colleagues.

   The restorers worked as patient barers, lifting the plaster to reveal the mural beneath.

   Note

   An agent noun built the ordinary way, bare plus -er, so it shares its spelling exactly with the comparative "more bare". Only the grammar tells them apart: a barer of secrets, but hills that grow barer. Eddie Wainwright's Poetry in Our Time (2008) uses it scornfully of a "legion of barers of poets' souls", leaning on the familiar phrase bare one's soul.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2