barest

1. 1
   adjective

   Superlative of bare.

   The cabin was furnished with the barest essentials.

   Her account left out all but the barest details of the trip.

   Note

   The superlative does its liveliest work in the "just sufficient" meaning of bare rather than the "naked" one: the barest minimum, the barest essentials. A favorite frame is the barest of plus a plural noun, as in David Turner's "barest of skeleton services" in RAIL (2023). The Yorkshire and London slang bare, meaning "a lot of," cannot be compared, so it never takes this form.

2. 2
   verbarchaic

   Archaic second-person singular simple present indicative of bare.

   Thou barest thy soul in every letter thou sendest.

   When thou barest thy sword, the enemy retreats.

   Note

   A verb form that survives only in thou-language, where -est marks the present tense: thou barest thy head, thou barest a secret. On the page it looks exactly like the superlative "most bare" and like the old past of "bear", so read the words around it. Here it means uncovering or revealing, often figuratively, and the action is happening now.

3. 3
   verbarchaic

   Archaic second-person singular simple past indicative of bear.

   Thou barest thy sorrows in silence all those years.

   Through every hardship, thou barest thyself with grace.

   Note

   The spelling rests on bare, once a past tense of bear in its own right, with the thou ending -est added. Modern English uses bore instead. Context separates it from the present-tense "uncover" form: thou barest a burden, thou barest a child, thou barest arms all point to carrying, wearing or bearing, and to time already past.

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