Barnacle

Barnacles are also a monster/creature in the game Half-Life.

They are really nothing more than a real pain in the ass, being that they simply hang upside down from a ceiling and then wait for you to walk into their tongue. They then pull you up and bite you.

Nasty, but you can usually spot them and then blow them away before you get near them.

The make a nifty gooshing sound when they die.

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. ham Cf. F. bernacle, barnacle, E. barnacle a goose; and Ir. bairneach, barneach, limpet.] Zool.

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 Zool., the orange filefish. -- Barnacle scale Zool., a bark louse (Ceroplastes cirripediformis) of the orange and quince trees in Florida. The female scale curiously resembles a sessile barnacle in form.

© Webster 1913.

Bar"na*cle, n. [See Bernicle.]

A bernicle goose.

© Webster 1913.

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.

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.

Dickens.

© Webster 1913.