barrens n pl also barren. DAE ~ n 11 (1797-); DC 1 a, b (Nfld: 1770-; N B: 1832-), ~ partridge (Nfld: 1933); SEARY 102-3.
   1 Elevated land or plateau with low, scrubby vegetation.
    [1770] 1792 CARTWRIGHT i, 21 I landed on South Head with Ned, and took a walk upon the barrens. 1792 ibid Gloss i, ix ~ elevated lands, which will not produce timber. [1819] 1826 [GLASCOCK] i, 165 "A Raking Broadside at Parting": Farewell to each mountain and moor, / Each desolate barren and bog. 1843 JUKES 22 The 'barrens' of Newfoundland are those districts which occupy the summits of the hills and ridges, and other elevated and exposed tracts. They are covered with a thin and scrubby vegetation. . and are somewhat similar in appearance to the moorlands of the north of England, differing only in the kind of vegetation. 1879 Nineteenth Century ix, 54 In Newfoundland there are barrens of many miles in extent, high, and, comparatively speaking, dry plateaus. 1947 TANNER 348 No part is more rugged and inhospitable than these 'barrens,' the vast rolling plateaux of the interior, broken by stunted groups of wind-torn trees only at the plateaux' edges. 1968 MOWAT & DE VISSER 138 Leaving the settlements in October ... they traversed the windswept sweep of the high barrens until they came to the southward edge of the Big Woods.
   2 Uninhabited treeless stretches of wasteland, supporting low shrubs, berries, mosses, and wild animals; MARSH.
   [1766] 1971 BANKS 121 We think it Prudent to Return upon the Rocks & Barrens (for so they Call the Places where Wood does not Grow). [1794] 1968 THOMAS 104 Here it was now, by the side of a Swamp in the Barrens of Newfoundland, threadbare, wet, dirty. 1819 ANSPACH 294 [There are] extensive plains covered either with heath, or with rocky surfaces, more or less extensive, where not a tree or shrub is to be seen, and which are from thence usually called Barrens. 1897 HARVEY 150 The 'barrens' are covered with a rich carpet of moss of every shade and colour, and abound in all sorts of wild berries. 1907 TOWNSEND 282 The Arctic strip extends from the exposed coasts of the outer islands, in onto the mainland for from one to three or four miles as a practically unbroken 'barren,' sprinkled with lichen-covered ledges and carpeted with turf of reindeer lichen, sphagnum, Empetrum, sedges, creeping willows, and various other species of herbaceous plants. T 175/7-65 The partridge-berry, they was on the barrens, but the marshberry was 'long wi' the bakeapples on the marsh. M 71-97 They went out on the barrens where they usually picked berries or laid out rabbit snares or traps.' 1976 JACKSON 36 Bogs, Heaths (known as 'Barrens, in Newfoundland) and rough meadows near boglands...
   3 Exposed, rocky areas incapable of supporting much vegetation.
   1842 JUKES ii, 11 We came on some small rocky 'barrens.' 1866 WILSON 27 Passing these ravines and belts of woods [going inland], we arrive at an open country, called The Barrens, which are an immense waste, consisting of barren rock, or rock covered with moss. 1877 ROBINSON 279 Alternate marshes, bald granite barrens, and belts of stunted spruce and fir characterize this [region]. 1969 Nfld Essays 5 The island vegetation is coniferous forest, interspersed with barren rock areas locally known by the colourful and descriptive term,'barrens.'
   4 Attrib barren(s) partridge: rock ptarmigan (Lagopus mutus); BARRENER; PARTRIDGE.
   1933 MERRICK 191 In a deep gully ... we came to a company of barrens partridges. They are white, like ptarmigan, only smaller. 1959 MCATEE 25 Barren partridge—rock partridge.
   barren sand: sandy patch in a treeless plateau.
   [1777] 1792 CARTWRIGHT ii, 238 We passed a very uncomfortable night at that place; for, we lay upon barren sand, were wet to the skin with rain, and most cruelly bit by flies.

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