Meaning of barleycorn | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A grain of barley.
2. The length of such a grain; a unit of length of approximately one third (or sometimes one quarter) of an inch or eight millimetres, still used as a basis for shoe sizes.
   obsolete
3. A small groove between two moldings.

Equivalents

Examples

“The Town Mouse came, and they sat down to a dinner of barleycorns and roots, the latter of which had a distinctly earthy flavour.”

“This trip⟳ to Italy has actually enlarged the diameter of my head thirteen barleycorns!”

“Then shewed the devil the booke unto the friar, and the friar saw⟳ it was an uncut unique of incalculable value; the height of it was half a cubit and the breadth of it the fourth part of a cubit and the thickness of it five barleycorns lacking the space of three horsehairs.”

CEFR level