bare
/bɛː
/adjective
1(Of a person or part of the body) not clothed or covered: he was bare from the waist up she padded in bare feet towards the door...
- They shared a white sheet covering their bare body from the waist down.
- ‘I need a cup of coffee, and badly,’ he decided as he got out of bed and threw a robe on, covering his bare body.
- Fabyein's broad back was turned to her; his sun-darkened body was bare beneath the covers.
Synonyms
naked, unclothed, undressed, uncovered, stripped, with nothing on, in a state of nature, disrobed, unclad, undraped, exposed;
nude, in the nude, stark naked;
French au naturel
informal without a stitch on, in one's birthday suit, in the raw, in the altogether, in the buff, as naked as the day one was born, in the nuddy, mother naked
British informal starkers
Scottish informal in the scud, scuddy
North American informal bare-assed, buck naked
Australian informal bollocky
British vulgar slang bollock-naked
1.1Without the appropriate, usual, or natural covering: leaf fall had left the trees bare bare floorboards...
- How the trees looked so naked and bare with no coverings.
- I love to watch plants grow, covering fences and bare earth.
- Roofs seemed to jig unevenly as shingles drooped off of the edges, while many had bare spots with no covering at all.
Synonyms
uncovered, uncarpeted, unpainted, unvarnished;
stripped;
polished, sealed
barren, bleak, exposed, desolate, stark, arid, desert, denuded, lunar;
treeless, forestless, without vegetation, defoliated;
unsheltered, unprotected, unshielded
rare unwooded
1.2Without the appropriate or usual contents: a bare cell with just a mattress...
- She opened the light green fridge, an odd colour but it was just regular by Val's standards, and rummaged through the bare contents.
- He was in a plain, bare cell with bars and the whole bit.
- Children told me of having their rooms stripped bare and the contents thrown into the corridor.
Synonyms
empty, emptied, unfurnished, vacant, clear, cleared, free, stark, austere, spartan, unadorned, unembellished, unornamented, unfussy, plain
1.3 (bare of) Devoid of; without: the interior was bare of plaster
Synonyms
empty of, emptied of, without, lacking, devoid of, bereft of, wanting, deprived of, destitute of, free from
2Without addition; basic and simple: he outlined the bare essentials of the story...
- For all that, the staging will be simple, a bare set putting the focus on the performers' physical presence.
- In general he eschewed complicated effects of pulsating or flashing lights, preferring a bare and simple presentation that brought him within the orbit of Minimal art.
- Nicole told Tommy that she liked the simple, bare hotel room.
Synonyms
straightforward, plain, simple, basic, pure, essential, bare-bones, fundamental, stripped down, cut down, stark, bald, cold, hard;
truthful, realistic, true to life;
brutal, harsh;
explicit, unequivocal, unambiguous, unexaggerated, unadorned, unembellished, undisguised, unveiled, unvarnished, unqualified
informal warts and all
2.1 [attributive] Only just sufficient: the bare minimum of furniture...
- It is laid out in an area the size of a football field and represented with the bare minimum of stage furniture.
- Keep your contemporary furniture choices to a bare minimum.
- Households have the bare minimum of furniture, with mattresses spread on the floor at night for beds.
2.2 [attributive] Surprisingly small in number or amount: all you need to get started with this program is a bare 10K bytes of memory...
- I put the bare amount of makeup on with trembling hands… wondering if now would be a good time to take up alcoholism with a vengeance.
- The bare amount of light it cast illuminated the western sky in a gorgeous rainbow of pinks, yellows, and oranges.
- He only drank the bare amount of blood he needed to stay alive from Elvadriewyn.
Synonyms
mere, no more than, no better than, just a, only a, simple, sheer, very, basic;
slim, slight, slender, paltry, skimpy, minimum, trifling
verb [with object]
Uncover (a part of the body or other thing) and expose it to view: he bared his chest to show his scar...
- One of the prisoners bared his back after his initial arrest to reveal open welts allegedly caused by baton and rubber hoses.
- With Britney baring her belly every chance she gets, tummies are getting more attention than ever.
- The Comte rushed to help her, and as she seemed to be stifling, cut her bodice open with his dagger, baring her shoulder.
Synonyms
uncover, strip, lay bare, undress, unclothe, denude, unveil, unmask;
expose, expose to view, reveal;
display, put on display, put on show, exhibit
determiner British informal
A large amount or number of: my birthday’s on the 22nd—I’m gonna get bare cash I’ve got bare work to do you can’t promote your party all over Twitter and then get mad when bare people show up...
- I put in bare work in the studio today.
- Got bare work to do tomoz.
- I remember the days I thought £1000 was bare money.
adverb [as submodifier] British informal
Very; really (used as an intensifier): that girl is bare lazy I’m in a bare good mood for once...
- I'm getting bare mad at this phone.
- Jessie J's Alive album is bare good.
- He used to make bare good music.
Phrases
bare all
the bare bones
bare one's fangs
bare one's soul
bare one's teeth
with one's bare hands
Derivatives
bareness
/ noun ...- I visited your country twice already and found the bareness of the landscape very inviting to big thoughts.
- Detached from society, they don't seem to exist beyond the bareness of the stage.
- Giant sycamores line the road to Purple Hill, almost sentry-like in their winter bareness.
Origin
Old English bær (noun), barian (verb), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch baar.