barnacle Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun marine crustaceans with feathery food-catching appendages; free-swimming as larvae; as adults form a hard shell and live attached to submerged surfaces
    cirripede; cirriped.
  2. noun European goose smaller than the brant; breeds in the far north
    barnacle goose; Branta leucopsis.

WordNet

Bar"na*cle noun
Etymology
Prob. from E. barnacle a kind of goose, which was popularly supposed to grow from this shellfish; but perh. from LL. bernacula for pernacula, dim. of perna ham, sea mussel; cf. Gr. ham Cf. F. bernacle, barnacle, E. barnacle a goose; and Ir. bairneach, barneach, limpet.
Definitions
  1. (Zoöl.) Any cirriped crustacean adhering to rocks, floating timber, ships, etc., esp. (a) the sessile species (genus Balanus and allies), and (b) the stalked or goose barnacles (genus Lepas and allies). See Cirripedia, and Goose barnacle.
Bar"na*cle noun
Etymology
See Bernicle.
Definitions
  1. A bernicle goose.
Bar"na*cle noun
Etymology
OE. bernak, bernacle; cf. OF. bernac, and Prov. F. (Berri) berniques, spectacles.
Definitions
  1. pl. (Far.) An instrument for pinching a horse's nose, and thus restraining him. Formerly used in the sing.
    The barnacles . . . give pain almost equal to that of the switch. Youatt.
  2. pl. Spectacles; -- so called from their resemblance to the barnacles used by farriers. Cant, Eng. Dickens.

Webster 1913