in naval affairs, a boat of state and pleasure, adorned with various ornaments, having bales and tilts, and seats covered with cushions and carpets, and benches for many oars; as the lord-mayor's barge, a company's barge, an admiral's barge, &c. It is also the name of a flat-bottomed vessel employed for carrying goods in a navigable river; as those upon the river Thames, called west-country barges.

in ornithology. See SCOLOPAX.

BARGE-coupler, in architecture, a beam mortised into another, to strengthen the building.

BARGE-course, with bricklayers, a term used for that part of the tiling which projects over without the principal rafters, in all sorts of buildings, where there is either a gable or a kirkin-head. See GABLE and HEAD.