Definition of "barless"

The French have re-occupied a fort twenty miles up the pretty barless river, the outlet of a great lagoon; it was abandoned during the Prusso-Gallic war.

1883, Richard Francis Burton, Verney Lovett Cameron, To The Gold Coast for Gold, Vol. II‎

Such an ardour possessed the men for the fight that in some it reached the pitch of fear lest they should arrive too late upon the battlefield and receive only a barless medal.

1922, Enos Herbert Glynne Roberts, The Story of the "9th King's" in France‎

The regulars were left barless but, like the White Russians of Paris and the Cubans of Miami, they religiously awaited the day they could return.

2000 July 14, Done Rose, “The Grub Game”, in Chicago Reader‎