Barn (building) - Definition and Overview

A barn in southern Ontario, Canada

A barn is an agricultural building used for storage and as a covered workplace. It may sometimes be used to house animals or store vehicles, and is often found on a farm.

On older style barns, the upper area was used to store hay and sometimes grain. This is called the mow. A large door at the top one of the ends of the barn opened up so hay could be put in the mow. The hay was hoisted into the barn by a system containing pulleys and a trolley that ran along a track attached to the top ridge of the barn.

An old expression for a person having poor aim when throwing an object or when shooting as something is 'he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.' This becomes amusing when the physics definition of a barn, a unit of exceedingly small area, is considered.

See also

• Barn raising
• List of building types