Bar
Pronunciation
Origin 1
From Middle English barre, from Old French barre ("beam, bar, gate, barrier"), from Vulgar Latin *barra, of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Old Frankish *bara ("bar, beam, barrier, fence"), from Proto-Germanic *barÅ ("beam, bar, barrier"), from Proto-Indo-European *bÊ°Ar- ("log, board, plank"). If so, then cognate with Old High German para, bara ("bar, beam, one's cherished land"), Old Frisian ber ("attack, assault"), Swedish bärling ("a spoke"), Norwegian berling ("a small bar in a vehicle, rod"), Latin forus ("gangway, plank"), Russian забоÌÑ€ (zabór, "fencing, paling, fence"), Ancient Greek φάÏος (pháros, "piece of land, furrow, marker, beacon, lighthouse").
Full definition of bar
Noun
bar
(countable and uncountable; plural bars)- A solid, more or less rigid object with a uniform cross-section smaller than its length.The window was protected by steel bars.
- (countable, uncountable, metallurgy) A solid metal object with uniform (round, square, hexagonal, octagonal or rectangular) cross-section; in the US its smallest dimension is .25 inch or greater, a piece of thinner material being called a strip.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.
- A cuboid piece of any solid commodity.bar of chocolatebar of soap
- A broad shaft, or band, or stripe.a bar of light; a bar of colour
- A long, narrow drawn or printed rectangle, cuboid or cylinder, especially as used in a bar code or a bar chart.
- A diacritical mark that consists of a line drawn through a grapheme. (For example, turning A into Ⱥ.)
- A business licensed to sell alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises, or the premises themselves; public house.The street was lined with all-night bars.
- The counter of such a premises.Step up to the bar and order a drink.
- A counter, or simply a cabinet, from which alcoholic drinks are served in a private house or a hotel room.
- In combinations such as coffee bar, juice bar, etc., a premises or counter serving non-alcoholic drinks.
- An official order or pronouncement that prohibits some activity.The club has lifted its bar on women members.
- Anything that obstructs, hinders, or prevents; an obstruction; a barrier.
- DrydenMust I new bars to my own joy create?
- (computing, whimsical, derived from fubar) A metasyntactic variable representing an unspecified entity, often the second in a series, following foo.Suppose we have two objects, foo and bar.
- (UK, legal) The railing surrounding the part of a courtroom in which the judges, lawyers, defendants and witnesses stay
- (legal, "the Bar", "the bar") The Bar exam, the legal licensing exam.He's studying hard to pass the Bar this time; he's failed it twice before.
- (legal, "the Bar", "the bar") A collective term for lawyers or the legal profession; specifically applied to barristers in some countries but including all lawyers in others.
- (music) A vertical line across a musical staff dividing written music into sections, typically of equal durational value.
- (music) One of those musical sections.
- (sports) A horizontal pole that must be crossed in high jump and pole vault
- (soccer) The crossbar
- 2010, December 29, Chris Whyatt, Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton, Composed play then saw Sam Ricketts nutmeg Ashley Cole before Taylor whipped a fine curling effort over Petr Cech's bar.
- (backgammon) The central divider between the inner and outer table of a backgammon board, where stones are placed if they are hit.
- An addition to a military medal, on account of a subsequent act
- A linear shoaling landform feature within a body of water.
- (nautical, hydrology) A ridge or succession of ridges of sand or other substance, especially a formation extending across the mouth of a river or harbor or off a beach, and which may obstruct navigation. (FM 55-501).
- (heraldiccharge) One of the ordinaries in heraldry; a fess.
- An informal unit of measure of signal strength for a wireless device such as a cell phone.There were no bars so I didn't get your text.
- A city gate, in some British place names.Potter's Bar
- (mining) A drilling or tamping rod.
- (mining) A vein or dike crossing a lode.
- (architecture) A gatehouse of a castle or fortified town.
- (farriery) 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.
- (farriery, in the plural) The space between the tusks and grinders in the upper jaw of a horse, in which the bit is placed.
Synonyms
- (business licensed to sell intoxicating beverages) barroom, ginshop, pub (British), public house, tavern
- (official order prohibiting some activity) ban, prohibition
- (section of a staff, in music) measure
Derived terms
Verb
- (transitive) To obstruct the passage of (someone or something).
- 1906, Alfred Noyes, s:The Highwayman (Noyes), "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."
- Our way was barred by a huge rockfall.
- (transitive) To prohibit.I couldn't get into the nightclub because I had been barred.
- (transitive) To lock or bolt with a bar.bar the door
- to imprint or paint with bars, to stripe
- 1899, Joseph Conrad, ,I lived in a hut in the yard, but 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.
Synonyms
Preposition
- Except, with the exception of.He invited everyone to his wedding bar his ex-wife.
- (horse racing) Denotes the minimum odds offered on other horses not mentioned by name.Leg At Each Corner is at 3/1, Lost My Shirt 5/1, and it's 10/1 bar.
Derived terms
Origin 2
From Ancient Greek βάÏος (baros, "weight"), coined circa 1900.