What does barrow mean?
A barrow is fundamentally a thing that carries: in its oldest everyday sense, it is a small open cart or frame fitted with handles and wheels, designed to be pushed or pulled by hand. This is the sense behind the familiar garden wheelbarrow and behind the historic market traders of London known as 'barrow boys', who sold fruit and vegetables from handcarts. In British English, however, the word has a second, much older life: a barrow is also an ancient burial mound, an earthen or stone monument raised over the dead in prehistoric times, and such mounds still dot the British landscape. In American farming contexts, a barrow can further mean a castrated male pig. All these senses trace back to Old English roots connected with bearing and carrying weight. The word carries a slightly old-fashioned, rustic flavour today, evoking market stalls, country lanes, and archaeology rather than modern commerce, which makes it a vivid and characterful addition to any vocabulary.
A small open cart or frame with handles and wheels, used for carrying loads by hand.
"He loaded the sacks of grain onto the barrow and wheeled them into the barn."
Often encountered as part of the compound 'wheelbarrow' in American English.
(British) An ancient burial mound of earth or stone, especially one dating from prehistoric times.
"The round barrow on the ridge had stood undisturbed for four thousand years."
Chiefly used in archaeology and discussions of prehistoric monuments.
(US, agriculture) A castrated male pig.
"The farmer separated the barrows from the sows before moving the herd."
Standard terminology in American livestock farming; rare outside that context.
Regular plural; applies to all three senses of the noun.
"Several barrows were uncovered during the excavation of the site."
In London, the street traders who sold goods from handcarts became so iconic they earned their own nickname — 'barrow boys' — a term still used today.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of barrow
The word barrow comes from Old English. The cart sense derives from 'bearwe', meaning a basket, stretcher, or load-carrying device, rooted in the Germanic verb that also gives English 'bear' (to carry); its German cousin 'Bahre' (a stretcher or bier) is a direct cognate. The burial-mound sense comes from a different Old English word, 'beorg', meaning hill or mound, which survives in place names like Barrow-in-Furness. Both strands were absorbed into Middle English, leaving modern English with a single word covering two quite different ancient ideas.
Related word forms
How barrow is actually used
The cart sense is common in both British and American English, though Americans more often use the compound 'wheelbarrow'. The burial-mound sense is chiefly British and archaeological. The pig-farming sense ('a barrow') is standard in American agricultural contexts but unfamiliar to most general readers.
Easily confused with barrow
A borough is an administrative district or town, whereas a barrow is either a handcart or an ancient burial mound.
A burrow is a hole or tunnel dug by an animal for shelter, while a barrow is a cart or a raised earthen mound.