barbed
/bɑːbd
/adjective
1Having a barb or barbs: barbed arrows...
- Their half-hearted shower of arrows thickened and turned the air black with sharp, barbed, and vile arrows.
- My words seemed to fasten like barbed arrows in the souls of men.
- Arrows and barbed harpoons were placed near the right leg; milling stones, awls, chisels, knives, and other offerings were set to the left of the body.
Synonyms
jagged, hooked, spiky, spiked, spined, spiny, prickly, thorny, scratchy, bristly, bristled, briary, brambly, sharp, pointed
technical spinose, spinous
1.1(Of a remark or joke) deliberately hurtful: a fair degree of barbed wit...
- It is tempting to think kindly of him and to believe that underneath the sarcasm, the dry wit, the barbed comment, there's a rather nice man struggling to get out.
- Every barbed remark directed at a non-conformist is also an affirmation of his/her existence.
- The dangers for Stephen, however, arc the barbed remarks of the scholars, presently engaged in a discussion of Goethe's novel, Wilhelm Meister.
Synonyms
hurtful, wounding, cutting, biting, stinging, mean, spiteful, nasty, rude, cruel, vicious, unkind, unfriendly, snide, pointed, hateful, ill-natured, bitter, venomous, poisonous, mordant, acid, acerbic, acrimonious, astringent, caustic, sharp, scathing, hostile, rancorous, malicious, malevolent, evil-intentioned, baleful, vindictive, vengeful, vitriolic, splenetic, malign, malignant, pernicious, bilious
informal bitchy, catty
literary malefic, maleficent