1. [n]  an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation; "the barrens of central Africa"; "the trackless wastes of the desert"
2. [adj]  incapable of sustaining life; "the dead and barren Moon"
3. [adj]  not bearing offspring; "a barren woman"; "learned early in his marriage that he was sterile"
4. [adj]  not fertile or productive; "a barren tree"; "soil too infertile to sustain real pasture"
5. [adj]  without offspring; "in some societies a barren woman is rejected by her tribesmen"
6. [adj]  providing no shelter or sustenance; "bare rocky hills"; "barren lands"; "the bleak treeless regions of the high Andes"; "the desolate surface of the moon"; "a stark landscape"

1. \Bar"ren\, a. [OE. barein, OF. brehaing, fem. brehaigne,
   baraigne, F. br['e]haigne; of uncertain origin; cf. Arm.
   br['e]kha[~n], markha[~n], sterile; LL. brana a sterile mare,
   principally in Aquitanian and Spanish documents; Bisc. barau,
   baru, fasting.]
   1. Incapable of producing offspring; producing no young;
      sterile; -- said of women and female animals.
   
            She was barren of children.           --Bp. Hall.
   
   2. Not producing vegetation, or useful vegetation; ?rile.
      ``Barren mountain tracts.'' --Macaulay.
   
   3. Unproductive; fruitless; unprofitable; empty.
   
            Brilliant but barren reveries.        --Prescott.
   
            Some schemes will appear barren of hints and matter.
                                                  --Swift.
   
   4. Mentally dull; stupid. --Shak.
   
   {Barren flower}, a flower which has only stamens without a
      pistil, or which as neither stamens nor pistils.
   
   {Barren Grounds} (Geog.), a vast tract in British America
      northward of the forest regions.
   
   {Barren Ground bear} (Zo["o]l.), a peculiar bear, inhabiting
      the Barren Grounds, now believed to be a variety of the
      brown bear of Europe.
   
   {Barren Ground caribou} (Zo["o]l.), a small reindeer
      ({Rangifer Gr[oe]nlandicus}) peculiar to the Barren
      Grounds and Greenland.
   
   

2. \Bar"ren\, n.
   1. A tract of barren land.
   
   2. pl. Elevated lands or plains on which grow small trees,
      but not timber; as, pine barrens; oak barrens. They are
      not necessarily sterile, and are often fertile. [Amer.]
      --J. Pickering.
   
   

For a woman to be barren was accounted a severe punishment among the Jews (Gen. 16:2; 30:1-23; 1 Sam. 1:6, 27; Isa. 47:9; 49:21; Luke 1:25). Instances of barrenness are noticed (Gen. 11:30; 25:21; 29:31; Judg. 13:2, 3; Luke 1:7, 36).