[f. BARB sb.2 + -ED.] Of a horse: Armed or caparisoned with a barb or bard; properly BARDED.

1

1509.  Hawes, Past. Pleas., XXVII. lvii. My fayre barbed stede.

2

a. 1618.  Raleigh, Prerog. Parl. (1628), 27. Many Earles could bring into the field a thousand Barbed horses.

3

a. 1711.  Ken, Edmund, Wks. 1721, II. 84. As a barb’d Steed in Fight, who nothing fears.

4

1814.  Scott, Ld. Isles, VI. xxiii. Or what may their short swords avail, ’Gainst barbed horse and shirts of mail?

5