marine crustaceans with feathery food-catching appendages; free-swimming as larvae; as adults form a hard shell and live attached to submerged surfaces
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European goose smaller than the brant; breeds in the far north
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Barnacle \Bar"na*cle\, n. [See {Bernicle}.] A bernicle goose.
Barnacle \Bar"na*cle\, n. [OE. bernak, bernacle; cf. OF. bernac, and Prov. F. (Berri) berniques, spectacles.] 1. pl. (Far.) An instrument for pinching a horse's nose, and thus restraining him.
Note: [Formerly used in the sing.]
The barnacles . . . give pain almost equal to that of the switch. --Youatt.
2. pl. Spectacles; -- so called from their resemblance to the barnacles used by farriers. [Cant, Eng.] --Dickens.
Barnacle \Bar"na*cle\, n. [Prob. from E. barnacle a kind of goose, which was popularly supposed to grow from this shellfish; but perh. from LL. bernacula for pernacula, dim. of perna ham, sea mussel; cf. Gr. pe`rna ham. Cf. F. bernacle, barnacle, E. barnacle a goose; and Ir. bairneach, barneach, limpet.] (Zo["o]l.) Any cirriped crustacean adhering to rocks, floating timber, ships, etc., esp. (a) the sessile species (genus {Balanus} and allies), and (b) the stalked or goose barnacles (genus {Lepas} and allies). See {Cirripedia}, and {Goose barnacle}.
{Barnacle eater} (Zo["o]l.), the orange filefish.
{Barnacle scale} (Zo["o]l.), a bark louse ({Ceroplastes cirripediformis}) of the orange and quince trees in Florida. The female scale curiously resembles a sessile barnacle in form.
Bernicle \Ber"ni*cle\, n. [OE. bernak, bernacle; cf. OF. bernac; prob. fr. LL. bernacula for hibernicula, bernicula, fr. Hibernia; the birds coming from Hibernia or Ireland. Cf. 1st {Barnacle}.] A bernicle goose. [Written also {barnacle}.]
{Bernicle goose} (Zo["o]l.), a goose ({Branta leucopsis}), of Arctic Europe and America. It was formerly believed that it hatched from the cirripeds of the sea ({Lepas}), which were, therefore, called barnacles, goose barnacles, or Anatifers. The name is also applied to other related species. See {Anatifa} and {Cirripedia}.
What's really hurt the community has been draconian rent control, enforced to protect a favored class of barnacle renters familiar to college towns.