bar
Part of speech: noun
verb
prep
adv
Morphological type: simple
Topics: architecture
backgammon
ball-games
business
communications
computing
dancing
electrical-engineering
electricity
electromagnetism
electronics
energy
engineering
entertainment
farriery
games
geography
government
heraldry
hip-hop
hobbies
horse-racing
horseracing
horses
hydrology
law
lifestyle
mathematics
media
metallurgy
mining
monarchy
music
natural-sciences
nautical
nobility
pets
physical-sciences
physics
politics
programming
publishing
racing
sciences
soccer
sports
telecommunications
transport
typography
Etymology: From Middle English barre, from Old French barre (“beam, bar, gate, barrier”), from Vulgar Latin *barra, of uncertain origin. Doublet of barre.
Inflected forms:
form: bars
pos: noun
tags: plural
form: bars
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: barring
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: barred
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: barred
pos: verb
tags: past
Senses:
gloss: A solid, more or less rigid object of metal or wood with a uniform cross-section smaller than its length.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: The window was protected by steel bars.
gloss: A solid metal object with uniform (round, square, hexagonal, octagonal or rectangular) cross-section; in the US its smallest dimension is ¹⁄₄ inch or greater, a piece of thinner material being called a strip.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Ancient Sparta used iron bars instead of handy coins in more valuable alloy, to physically discourage the use of money.
We are expecting a carload of bar tomorrow.
gloss: A cuboid piece of any solid commodity.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: bar of chocolate
bar of soap
gloss: A broad shaft, band, or stripe.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: a bar of light
a bar of colour
gloss: A long, narrow drawn or printed rectangle, cuboid or cylinder, especially as used in a bar code or a bar chart.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Any of various lines used as punctuation or diacritics, such as the pipe ⟨|⟩, fraction bar (as in 12), and strikethrough (as in Ⱥ), formerly (obsolete) including oblique marks such as the slash.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: The sign indicating that the characteristic of a logarithm is negative, conventionally placed above the digit(s) to show that it applies to the characteristic only and not to the mantissa.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A similar sign indicating that the charge on a particle is the negative of its usual value (and that consequently the particle is in fact an antiparticle).
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A business selling alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises, or the premises themselves; a public house.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: The street was lined with all-night bars.
gloss: The counter of such premises.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Step up to the bar and order a drink.
gloss: A counter, or simply a cabinet, from which alcoholic drinks are served in a private house or a hotel room.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Premises or a counter serving any type of beverage.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
countable
in-compounds
uncountable
examples: a coffee bar
a juice bar
gloss: An informal establishment selling food to be consumed on the premises.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: a burger bar
a local fish bar
gloss: An establishment offering cosmetic services.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: a nail bar
a brow bar
gloss: An official order or pronouncement that prohibits some activity.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: The club has lifted its bar on women members.
The Chief Medical Officer of London Transport believes that public opinion against smoking will harden to the point of a total bar on the Underground, as in other countries.
gloss: Anything that obstructs, hinders, or prevents; an obstruction; a barrier.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Muſt I new bars to my own joy create?
Sexual preference or orientation shall not be a bar to becoming a foster parent.
Mr Harding could look back on his initial judgement of Paul's talent with great satisfaction while Paul could reflect that to be Irish was not necessarily a bar to progress.
gloss: A metasyntactic variable representing an unspecified entity, often the second in a series, following foo.
pos: noun
tags: countable
derived
uncountable
examples: Suppose we have four objects, foo, bar, baz and quux.
gloss: A dividing line (physical or notional) in the chamber of a legislature beyond which only members and officials may pass.
pos: noun
tags: UK
countable
uncountable
gloss: The railing surrounding the part of a courtroom in which the judges, lawyers, defendants and witnesses stay.
pos: noun
tags: UK
countable
uncountable
gloss: The bar exam, the legal licensing exam.
pos: noun
tags: Philippines
US
countable
uncountable
usually
examples: He's studying hard to pass the Bar this time; he's failed it twice before.
gloss: Collectively, lawyers or the legal profession; specifically applied to barristers in some countries, but including all lawyers in others.
pos: noun
tags: countable
metonymically
uncountable
examples: He was called to the bar.
gloss: One of an array of bar-shaped symbols that display the level of something, such as wireless signal strength or battery life remaining.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: I don't have any bars in the middle of this desert.
gloss: A vertical line across a musical staff dividing written music into sections, typically of equal durational value.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: One of those musical sections.
pos: noun
tags: countable
in-plural
slang
uncountable
examples: That rapper there, yeah, he got bars.
gloss: One of those musical sections.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
countable
in-plural
slang
uncountable
examples: His musical journey, and this is a quote, is “a constant push and pull between self awareness and delusion”. That’s bars right there to be honest.
gloss: A horizontal pole that must be crossed in the high jump and pole vault.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: Any level of achievement regarded as a challenge to be overcome; a standard or expectation.
pos: noun
tags: countable
figuratively
uncountable
examples: to set the bar high/low
to raise the bar
[…] there’s no World War III now, but in the words of the prominent Never Trumper and Atlantic contributor Eliot Cohen, “that’s a pretty low bar.”
gloss: The crossbar.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Composed play then saw Sam Ricketts nutmeg Ashley Cole before Taylor whipped a fine curling effort over Petr Cech's bar.
gloss: The central divider between the inner and outer table of a backgammon board, where stones are placed if they are hit.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: An addition to a military medal, on account of a subsequent act.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A ridge or succession of ridges of sand or other substance; especially
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A ridge or succession of ridges of sand or other substance; especially:
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Travellers change at Batoum into a steamer which performs the service between that port and Poti, and which has a less draught of water to enable it to cross the bar of the river Rion.
gloss: One of the ordinaries in heraldry; a diminutive of a fess.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: On the fesse are two bars wavy azure for waterways.
gloss: A city gate, in some British place names.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
examples: Temple Bar, London
gloss: A drilling or tamping rod.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A vein or dike crossing a lode.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: A gatehouse of a castle or fortified town.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: The part of the crust of a horse's hoof which is bent inwards towards the frog at the heel on each side, and extends into the centre of the sole.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: The space between the tusks and grinders in the upper jaw of a horse, in which the bit is placed.
pos: noun
tags: countable
in-plural
uncountable
gloss: A measure of drugs, typically one ounce.
pos: noun
tags: countable
slang
uncountable
examples: Tell Sick Boy tae gie us a bell if ye see um. The bastard owes us twenty fuckin bar.
gloss: A small, tablet-shaped dose of Xanax, typically containing two milligrams and able to be split into quarters.
pos: noun
tags: countable
uncountable
gloss: To obstruct the passage of (someone or something).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Our way was barred by a huge rockfall.
'One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize to-night, / But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light; / Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day, / Then look for me by moonlight, / Watch for me by moonlight, / I'll come to thee by moonlight, though Hell should bar the way.'
gloss: To prohibit.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: I couldn't get into the nightclub because I had been barred.
gloss: To lock or bolt with a bar.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: to bar the door
gloss: To imprint or paint with bars, to stripe.
pos: verb
examples: I lived in a hut in the yard. To be out of the chaos I would sometimes get into the accountant’s office. It was built of horizontal planks, and so badly put together that, as he bent over his high desk, he was barred from neck to heels with narrow strips of sunlight.
gloss: Except, other than, besides.
pos: prep
examples: He invited everyone to his wedding bar his ex-wife.
"I might be a fool," the younger man admitted quietly, "even an idiot, but there's not a person living, bar you, who possess the courage to call me a weakling, Sir."
These see the overhead wires installed on all bar the slow lines between Bedford and Wellingborough by next May, with the remaining section completed by August, when the full programme is due to be completed.
gloss: Denotes the minimum odds offered on other horses not mentioned by name.
pos: adv
tags: not-comparable
examples: Leg At Each Corner is at 3/1, Lost My Shirt 5/1, and it's 10/1 bar.
Derived words: bar down
barrable
outbar
unbar
Translations: