How to Use barb in a Sentence

barb

noun
  • His method is to push down the barb below the flesh, loop the shoestring around the hook and yank fast.
    John Goodspeed, San Antonio Express-News, 24 June 2021
  • Valle has long tried to work out a fight with Estrada and the two have exchanged barbs.
    José M. Romero, The Arizona Republic, 31 Jan. 2024
  • The battle lines are drawn, the paranoia is growing, and the barbs are flying.
    Vulture, 2 Mar. 2023
  • Sweaters, swim trunks and strands of T-shirts hang from the wires’ pointed barbs, signs of where migrants were snagged by the wire.
    USA TODAY, 21 July 2023
  • Irwin died in 2006 after he was struck in the heart by the barb of a stingray off the coast of northern Australia.
    Abigail Adams, PEOPLE.com, 31 Dec. 2021
  • What has the season been like for the girl who’s third in the nation in scoring yet hears barbs from players and fans?
    Don Norcross, San Diego Union-Tribune, 9 Feb. 2024
  • The Joker barb is, no doubt, a reference to being called a clown act.
    Mark Heim | Mheim@al.com, al, 31 Oct. 2022
  • Caruso had a special barb for each of those who came after him.
    Los Angeles Times, 23 Mar. 2022
  • At a show in Dublin, Healy responded to Gallagher’s barbs.
    Spin Staff, SPIN, 8 June 2023
  • There appeared to be some more direct barbs aimed at Babyface and his team, too.
    Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 12 June 2023
  • Then maybe Claremont’s coaches would shoot a barb from across the table about some no-call from the night before.
    Kevin Reynolds, The Salt Lake Tribune, 10 Sep. 2022
  • Musk and Zuckerberg are trading barbs The light ribbing turned feistier over the past weekend.
    Scott Nover, Quartz, 10 July 2023
  • The two have traded barbs over the other's snub of critical GOP voters.
    Isabella Murray, ABC News, 14 July 2023
  • Your favorite anti-L.A. barb may not be here, for there are hundreds of these slings and slaggings.
    Patt Morrison, Los Angeles Times, 11 Apr. 2023
  • Logan throws this barb at Shiv in front of Tom’s face in season one, just a few episodes before their wedding.
    Rebecca Alter, Vulture, 14 Dec. 2021
  • Abbott and Patrick traded barbs, and the governor used his pen to veto more than 70 bills, most of them from the Senate.
    Robert T. Garrett, Dallas News, 6 July 2023
  • Be sure to cramp down the barb on your hooks to facilitate releasing hooked trout.
    cleveland, 9 Dec. 2021
  • Steve tragically died in 2006 after being pierced in the chest by a stingray barb.
    Kayla Keegan, Good Housekeeping, 14 June 2021
  • Each word might spring the narrator into a new scene or tangent — or serve as a barb to hang her up for a page or paragraph.
    Lynn Steger Strong, Los Angeles Times, 15 Nov. 2023
  • Wohler smiled again at that great moment: A lefty hopeful getting a gentle barb from the greatest lefty ever to take a mound.
    Star Tribune, 8 Feb. 2021
  • This isn’t the first time Isbell has traded barbs with another musician on the app.
    Ben Flanagan | Bflanagan@al.com, al, 20 July 2023
  • Responding firefighters found a catfish barb lodged in the child’s chest about 1 to 1.5 inches deep.
    Kaitlyn Alanis, Sun Sentinel, 21 June 2022
  • But as Nicky says in the kind of barb the film could have used more of, giving up his acting career would require having had a career to begin with.
    David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 June 2023
  • Clark and Reese, two of the (rightfully) most confident players on a court, were expected to trade barbs.
    Talya Minsberg, New York Times, 3 Apr. 2023
  • While the conflict may have taken a dark and personal turn, violent threats haven’t (yet) made their way into the barbs.
    C. Brandon Ogbunu, WIRED, 6 May 2024
  • There have been angry barbs tossed over the future of Taiwan and stealthy balloons sent over the North American landmass.
    Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 15 Nov. 2023
  • The mayor’s reelection campaign sent me a seven-page, point-by-point response with some sharp barbs.
    Dan Rodricks, Baltimore Sun, 18 Jan. 2024
  • As the politicians traded barbs over who was to blame, migrants were still making the dangerous journey into the U.S.
    Seung Min Kim, arkansasonline.com, 1 Mar. 2024
  • On the show, discussions about the artists’ barbs at each other are dissected with childlike awe and a layer of concern.
    Jon Caramanica, New York Times, 12 Oct. 2023
  • The lasso works like this: A cartridge with a 7 1/2-foot Kevlar cord with two hooked barbs tied to each end is loaded into the BolaWrap device, experts say.
    Olivia Diaz, Washington Post, 8 Feb. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'barb.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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