Barker

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɑː(r)kÉ™(r)

From bark ("(dog noise)") + -er.

Full definition of barker

Noun

1. Someone or something who barks.
   My neighbor's dog is a constant barker that keeps me awake at night.
2. A person employed to solicit customers by calling out to passersby, e.g. at a carnival.
• 2013-06-07, David Simpson, Fantasy of navigation, Like most human activities, ballooning has sponsored heroes and hucksters and a good deal in between. For every dedicated scientist patiently recording atmospheric pressure and wind speed while shivering at high altitudes, there is a carnival barker with a bevy of pretty girls willing to dangle from a basket or parachute down to earth.
3. Bob had amassed a considerable stockpile of double entendres from his days working as a barker for a strip joint.
4. A shelf-talker.
5. (video games) A video game mode where the action is demonstrated to entice someone to play the game.
   The barker mode of the arcade video game convinced the teenager to spend a quarter.
6. (slang, dated) A pistol.1969, George MacDonald Fraser, Flashman, ...Parkin, the Oxford Street gunmaker, sent me a brace of barkers in silver mountings, with my initials engraved—good for trade, I imagine.
7. The spotted redshank.

Synonyms

• spruik
• tout

From bark ("(surface of tree)") + -er.

Noun

1. (obsolete, 1811) A person that removes the bark from wood, or prepares it for use in tanning.The profession of barker has been made largely obsolete by the introduction of more effective tanning agents, but it lives on as a surname.
2. A machine used to remove the bark from wood.Run these logs through the barker so we can use them as fence posts.----