Barbed means having sharp points that stick out and angle backward, making something painful to touch and extremely difficult to remove once it catches. A fishhook is barbed so that once a fish bites, the hook won't slip back out. Barbed wire, invented in the 1870s, transformed the American West by making it possible to fence vast areas of land cheaply. Its sharp metal barbs kept cattle from pushing through, helping end the era of open range ranching.

The word also describes words or remarks with a hidden sting. A barbed comment might sound polite on the surface but contains a sharp insult underneath. If someone says “Nice shirt, I remember when those were popular,” that's a barbed remark. The compliment has a little hook in it that catches and hurts. Just like a physical barb, a barbed comment is designed to stick in your mind and be hard to forget.