an uninhabited wilderness that is worthless for cultivation; "the barrens of central Africa"; "the trackless wastes of the desert";
incapable of sustaining life; "the dead and barren Moon";
not bearing offspring; "a barren woman"; "learned early in his marriage that he was sterile";
providing no shelter or sustenance; "bare rocky hills"; "barren lands"; "the bleak treeless regions of the high Andes"; "the desolate surface of the moon"; "a stark landscape";