Meanings
- idiomaticnot comparableIn a past tense: criticizing the person to whom the phrase is directed for inappropriately, and usually neglectingly, leaving an exterior door or window open, considered ill-mannered.
Neither bothered to lock or shut the house's front or back doors. "It was like they had been born in a barn," she says.
2006 October 20, Heather Murphy, “The More the Merrier?”, in Washington Post, retrieved 15 Sep 2008 - idiomaticnot comparableIn a past tense: criticizing the person to whom the phrase is directed as lacking a sense of etiquette or being ill-mannered.
His aunt said angrily: "Fritz, were you born in a barn? Don't you have any manners?"
1971, Joyce Carol Oates, Wonderland: A Novel, Vanguard Press, page 761 more example
Phone at a symphony concert? I'd ask if these people were born in a barn, but that would disrespect the animals.
2002 June 19, Ruth Ann Baker, “Even wolves behave in the pack”, in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, retrieved 15 Sep 2008, page N4Synonyms: raised by wolves, raised in a barn
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectiveIn a past tense: criticizing the person to whom the phrase is directed as lacking a sense of etiquette or being ill-mannered.
Cite this entry
born in a barn. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/born%20in%20a%20barn
“born in a barn.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/born%20in%20a%20barn. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “born in a barn,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/born%20in%20a%20barn.
Source: born in a barn on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.