Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Barnacle

Bar′na·cle, n. [Prob. from E. barnacle a kind of goose, which was popularly supposed to grow from this shellfish; but perh. from LL. bernacula for pernacula, dim. of perna ham, sea mussel; cf. Gr. πέρνα ham. Cf. F. bernacle, barnacle, E. barnacle a goose; and Ir. bairneach, barneach, limpet.] (Zoöl.) Any cirriped crustacean adhering to rocks, floating timber, ships, etc., esp. (a) the sessile species (genus Balanus and allies), and (b) the stalked or goose barnacles (genus Lepas and allies). See Cirripedia, and Goose barnacle.

Barnacle eater (Zoöl.), the orange filefish. — Barnacle scale (Zoöl.), a bark louse (Ceroplastes cirripediformis) of the orange and quince trees in Florida. The female scale curiously resembles a sessile barnacle in form.

Bar′na·cle, n. [See Bernicle.] A bernicle goose.

Bar′na·cle, n. [OE. bernak, bernacle; cf. OF. bernac, and Prov. F. (Berri) berniques, spectacles.] 1. pl. (Far.) An instrument for pinching a horse's nose, and thus restraining him. [Formerly used in the sing.]

The barnacles . . . give pain almost equal to that of the switch. Youatt.

2. pl. Spectacles; — so called from their resemblance to the barnacles used by farriers. [Cant, Eng.] Dickens.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.