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Barren vs Void - What's the difference?

barren | void |

As adjectives the difference between barren and void

is that barren is unable to bear children; sterile while void is containing nothing; empty; vacant; not occupied; not filled.

As nouns the difference between barren and void

is that barren is an area of low fertility and habitation, a desolate place while void is an empty space; a vacuum.

As a verb void is

to make invalid or worthless.

barren

English

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • (label) Unable to bear children; sterile.
  • I silently wept as my daughter's husband rejected her. What would she do now that she was no longer a maiden but also barren ?
  • Of poor fertility, infertile; not producing vegetation.
  • * (1800–1859)
  • barren mountain tracts
  • * '>citation
  • Bleak.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Michael Arlen), title= “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days, chapter=Ep./4/2
  • , passage=As they turned into Hertford Street they startled a robin from the poet's head on a barren fountain, and he fled away with a cameo note.}}
  • Unproductive; fruitless; unprofitable; empty.
  • * (1796-1859)
  • brilliant but barren reveries
  • * (Jonathan Swift) (1667–1745)
  • Some schemes will appear barren of hints and matter.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=September 2, author=Phil McNulty, work=BBC
  • , title= Bulgaria 0-3 England , passage=Rooney had been suffered a barren spell for England with only one goal in 15 games but he was in no mood to ignore the gifts on offer in front of an increasingly subdued Bulgarian support.}}
  • Mentally dull; stupid.
  • * (William Shakespeare), (Hamlet), III.ii. ca. 1602
  • Set on some quantity of barren spectators to laugh too.

    Synonyms

    * sterile

    Antonyms

    * fertile * fruitful

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An area of low fertility and habitation, a desolate place.
  • The pine barrens are a site lonely enough to suit any hermit.

    void

    English

    (wikipedia void)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) vuit'', ''voide (modern vide).

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Containing nothing; empty; vacant; not occupied; not filled.
  • * Bible, Genesis i. 2
  • The earth was without form, and void .
  • * Shakespeare
  • I'll get me to a place more void .
  • * Massinger
  • I'll chain him in my study, that, at void hours, / I may run over the story of his country.
  • Having no incumbent; unoccupied; said of offices etc.
  • * Camden
  • divers great offices that had been long void
  • Being without; destitute; devoid.
  • * Bible, Proverbs xi. 12
  • He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbor.
  • Not producing any effect; ineffectual; vain.
  • * Bible, Isa. lv. 11
  • [My word] shall not return to me void , but it shall accomplish that which I please.
  • * Bible, Jer. xix. 7
  • I will make void the counsel of Judah.
  • Of no legal force or effect, incapable of confirmation or ratification.
  • null and void
  • Containing no immaterial quality; destitute of mind or soul.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • idol, void and vain
  • (computing, programming, of a function or method) That does not return a value.
  • * 2005 , Craig Larman, Applying UML and patterns
  • In particular, the roll method is void — it has no return value.
  • * 2007 , Andrew Krause, Foundations of GTK+ Development
  • The return value can safely be ignored if it is a void function.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An empty space; a vacuum.
  • Nobody has crossed the void since one man died trying three hundred years ago; it's high time we had another go.
  • * Alexander Pope
  • Pride, where wit fails, steps in to our defence, / And fills up all the mighty void of sense.
  • (astronomy) An extended region of space containing no galaxies
  • (materials science) A collection of adjacent vacancies inside a crystal lattice.
  • (fluid mechanics) A pocket of vapour inside a fluid flow, created by cavitation.
  • Synonyms
    * pore * bubble

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (label) To make invalid or worthless.
  • :
  • * (1609-1674)
  • *:It was become a practiceto void the security that was at any time given for money so borrowed.
  • *(w) (1643-1715)
  • *:after they had voided the obligation of the oath he had taken
  • To empty.
  • :
  • To throw or send out; to evacuate; to emit; to discharge.
  • :
  • *
  • *:You, that did void your rheum upon my beard, And foot me as you spurn a stranger cur
  • *(John Webster) (c.1580-c.1634)
  • *:With shovel, like a fury, voided out / The earth and scattered bones.
  • *(Isaac Barrow) (1630-1677)
  • *:a watchful application of mind in voiding prejudices
  • To withdraw, depart.
  • *:
  • *:BY than come in to the feld kynge Ban as fyers as a lyon/ Ha a said kyng Lot we must be discomfyte / for yonder I see the moste valyaunt knyght of the world / and the man of the most renoume / for suche ij bretheren as is kyng Ban & kyng bors ar not lyuynge / wherfore we must nedes voyde or deye
  • To remove the contents of; to make or leave vacant or empty; to quit; to leave.
  • :
  • * '>citation
  • *
  • *:If they will fight with us, bid them come down, / Or void the field.
  • Synonyms
    * (make invalid or worthless) annul, cancel * evacuate

    Etymology 2

    Alteration of (voidee).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • * 2011 , Thomas Penn, Winter King , Penguin 2012, p. 68:
  • Late on the final evening, as the customary ‘void ’ – spiced wine and sweetmeats – was served, more elaborate disguisings in the great hall culminated in the release of a flock of white doves.

    Anagrams

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