Barnacle

Quick meaning: Barnacle is a noun meaning A marine crustacean of the subclass Cirripedia that attaches itself to submerged surfaces such as tidal rocks or the bottoms of ships.

Meaning

A marine crustacean of the subclass Cirripedia that attaches itself to submerged surfaces such as tidal rocks or the bottoms of ships.

More Meanings

1. The barnacle goose.
2. (engineering, slang) In electrical engineering, a change made to a product on the manufacturing floor that was not part of the original product design.
3. (electronics, slang) On printed circuit boards, a change such as soldering a wire in order to connect two points, or addition such as an added resistor or capacitor, subassembly or daughterboard.
4. (software engineering, slang) A deprecated or obsolete file, image or other artifact that remains with a project even though it is no longer needed.
5. (archaic, British, slang, in the plural) A pair of spectacles.
6. (slang, obsolete) A good job, or snack easily obtained.
7. (obsolete, in the plural) An instrument like a pair of pincers, to fix on the nose of a vicious horse while shoeing so as to make it more tractable.

Example Sentences

To dream that some things just barnacle to your heart, and it might take years, or it might always just be there.

He turned a corner to where he supposed the cupboard might be, to find Howie and Alanna barnacled together in an embrace.

Tokuda went over everything his grandfather had taught him, including the commentary that had barnacled on to the core knowledge.

Word Forms

• barnacles
• barnacling
• barnacled

Synonyms for barnacle

Depending on context, synonyms include cruft, twitch, shellback.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include cirriped, cirripedian, cirripedology, acorn-shell, crustacean, crab.

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