Bär'ma-çīde or Bär'me-çīde, a.

a. [From a story in the Arabian Nights, concerning a beggar who asked food of one of the princes of the Barmec family (L. Barmecidæ), which flourished at Bagdad just before Haroun Al-Rasehid. The Barmecide ordered food, and before it could be brought, called on the beggar (naming the dishes) to help himself and eat. The beggar humored the joke, pretending to eat, and praising each imaginary dish, till he ended by declaring that he could eat no more.] Imaginary or pretended; — applied to entertainments. “A Barmecide feast.” Thackeray.