How to Use barbed in a Sentence

barbed

adjective
  • The candidates exchanged barbed comments during the debate.
  • No one else writes with such wounding, barbed wit.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 27 Aug. 2025
  • The fence is 8 feet tall and topped with barbed wire and alarmed.
    — Alexandra Skores, CNN Money, 12 May 2026
  • Watch this just for all the quick lands and barbed moments here alone.
    — Andy Hoglund, Entertainment Weekly, 5 Oct. 2025
  • The base that this is based on now has a bunch of barbed wire and fencing.
    — Fred Topel, Deadline, 5 Apr. 2025
  • Once the poop is in the water, no amount of barbed wire can get it out.
    — Cheri Lucas Rowlands, Longreads, 16 Aug. 2024
  • The men jumped the barbed wire fence, calling Cameron's name.
    — Rory Linnane, Journal Sentinel, 9 Jan. 2024
  • Steer clear of barbed wire fences, power lines, and windmills.
    — Tom Gavin, EverydayHealth.com, 23 July 2025
  • Left behind among the piles of trash are clotheslines made from barbed wire.
    — Kevin Baxter, Los Angeles Times, 8 Apr. 2024
  • Trump has cracked down on that front, while employing barbed rhetoric.
    — Tom Benning, Dallas News, 24 Aug. 2020
  • Ivor checked it, and then spotted the line of barbed wire threaded through the scrub.
    — Anne Enright, New Yorker, 27 July 2025
  • At night my mother would look through the barbed wire fence to get a glimpse of my father.
    — Linda Chase, Sun Sentinel, 5 Aug. 2024
  • Dense rows of Xs in the background suggest barbed wire.
    — Ben Davis, The New York Review of Books, 25 Apr. 2026
  • The Taser can fire two barbed darts that are connected to thin wires.
    — Matt McKinney, Star Tribune, 12 Apr. 2021
  • Others have hopped fences or cut the barbed wire to access the monolith.
    — Tiney Ricciardi, The Denver Post, 1 July 2024
  • The men brought blankets to protect themselves from barbed wire.
    — Cindy Von Quednow, CNN Money, 20 May 2025
  • The White men had crushed his skull and tied a cotton-gin fan to his neck with barbed wire.
    — Deneen L. Brown, Washington Post, 28 Apr. 2023
  • Medvedev replied, in one of several barbed posts throughout the week.
    — Callum Sutherland, Time, 31 July 2025
  • There’s a gate topped with barbed wire to keep the riffraff out, and then long and winding stairs down to the sea.
    — Stephen Rodrick, Variety, 13 Sep. 2023
  • Then there was an ice bath and an obstacle course scattered with barbed wire and nails.
    — Charles Bethea, New Yorker, 30 Mar. 2026
  • Who knew barbed wire could be so interesting?
    — Pam Leblanc, Southern Living, 3 Jan. 2026
  • His skull was crushed, one was eye dislodged and a cotton-gin fan was tied around his neck with barbed wire.
    — Deneen L. Brown, Washington Post, 23 July 2023
  • This is a problem that is not going to be solved by putting guards on the border or barbed wire.
    — Albinson Linares, NBC News, 3 Apr. 2024
  • Thailand says the barbed wire was set up to prevent the planting of mines and is on its own land.
    — Matthew Tostevin, MSNBC Newsweek, 27 Aug. 2025
  • The land was ringed by barbed wire and guarded by an armed security brigade.
    — Peter S. Goodman Jes Aznar, New York Times, 30 Dec. 2023
  • The inmates used blankets to protect themselves from the barbed wire on the fence.
    — Alex Sundby, CBS News, 21 May 2025
  • Almost 4 feet tall and nearly 8 feet wide, the plane is wrapped in a strict grid of barbed wire.
    — Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, 15 Mar. 2024
  • The video has since been revised, and the image replaced with an image of barbed wire.
    — Emily St. Martin, Los Angeles Times, 7 Apr. 2023
  • The video has since been revised, and the image replaced with an image of barbed wire.
    — oregonlive, 9 Apr. 2023
  • Homes and gardens sit behind protective walls and gates with barbed wire.
    — Eleanor Beardsley, NPR, 19 May 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'barbed.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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