barrette
Other forms: barrettes
A barrette is a clip or pin that holds a small amount of hair away from your face. You might be especially fond of your butterfly-shaped barrette.
Barrettes are partly useful — they can keep hair out of your eyes — and partly ornamental. Young children sometimes wear brightly colored plastic barrettes in their hair, while adults tend to stick to more sedate, simple barrettes. The word barrette is a diminutive form of the French barre, "bar," after the size and shape of the typical barrette.
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a small clip or pin for holding hair in placetype of:pina small slender (often pointed) piece of wood or metal used to support or fasten or attach things
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Vocabulary lists containing barrette
A borrowing from Middle French, -ette is a diminutive suffix. There are two widely used senses of this suffix: the first denotes the smallness of an object and the second refers to a woman carrying out the role of the root word.
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