1
: having barbs
2
: characterized by pointed and biting criticism or sarcasm
barbed witticisms
Examples of barbed in a Sentence
The candidates exchanged barbed comments during the debate.
barbed satire on American academia
Recent Examples on the Web
Away in a northeasterly direction towards Lake Pontchartrain sits a charmless, gated perimeter, secured by a fence topped with barbed wire.
—
Adam Crafton, The Athletic, 8 Feb. 2025
This is Auschwitz-Birkenau, a place where the Nazis treated people like animals caged in by electrified barbed wire, where prisoners died slowly by a combination of slave labor, human experimentation, starvation and disease.
—Jesse Kirsch, NBC News, 2 Feb. 2025
Manny found Gabriela, who had tripped and gotten tangled in a barbed wire fence, twisting her ankle.
—Matt Webb Mitovich, TVLine, 31 Jan. 2025
The sun is shining outside, but the darkness of the multistory complex – a network of torture chambers and cold cells cut off from the outside world by concrete walls and a latticework of braided barbed wire – is overwhelming.
—Scott Peterson, The Christian Science Monitor, 31 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for barbed
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Adam Crafton, The Athletic, 8 Feb. 2025
This is Auschwitz-Birkenau, a place where the Nazis treated people like animals caged in by electrified barbed wire, where prisoners died slowly by a combination of slave labor, human experimentation, starvation and disease.
—Jesse Kirsch, NBC News, 2 Feb. 2025
Manny found Gabriela, who had tripped and gotten tangled in a barbed wire fence, twisting her ankle.
—Matt Webb Mitovich, TVLine, 31 Jan. 2025
The sun is shining outside, but the darkness of the multistory complex – a network of torture chambers and cold cells cut off from the outside world by concrete walls and a latticework of braided barbed wire – is overwhelming.
—Scott Peterson, The Christian Science Monitor, 31 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for barbed
Cite this Entry
“Barbed.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/barbed. Accessed 28 Feb. 2025.
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