Bar Definition

bär
barred, barring, bars
noun
bars
A relatively long, straight, rigid piece of solid material used as a fastener, support, barrier, or structural or mechanical member.
American Heritage
Any piece of wood, metal, etc. longer than it is wide or thick, often used as a barrier, fastening, lever, etc.; specif., one of a series of such pieces enclosing a cage, jail cell, etc.
Webster's New World
A solid oblong block of a substance or combination of ingredients, such as soap or candy.
American Heritage
An oblong piece or mass of something solid.
Bar of soap, chocolate bar.
Webster's New World
Any of various flat baked confections that are typically dense and harder than cakes and served cut into rectangular pieces.
American Heritage
Antonyms:
verb
barred, barring, bars
To fasten securely with a long, straight, rigid piece of material.
Barred the gate.
American Heritage
To fasten with or as with a bar.
Webster's New World
To shut in or confine.
Barred themselves in the basement.
American Heritage
To obstruct by means of a bar or bars; shut off; close.
Webster's New World
To obstruct or impede; block.
Barred the access route.
American Heritage
Synonyms:
preposition
Except for; excluding.
This was your best performance, bar none.
American Heritage
Excluding; excepting.
The best bar none.
Webster's New World

Except, with the exception of.

He invited everyone to his wedding bar his ex-wife.
Wiktionary
(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.
Wiktionary
abbreviation
Barometer.
Webster's New World
Barometric.
Webster's New World
Barrel.
Webster's New World
Baruch.
Webster's New World
Browning automatic rifle.
Webster's New World
pronoun
An extinct language of Venezuela.
Wiktionary
idiom
behind bars
  • In prison.
American Heritage
behind bars
  • in prison or jail
Webster's New World
cross the bar
  • to die
Webster's New World
raise (<i>or</i> lower) the bar
  • raise (or lower) a limit, standard, etc.
Webster's New World

Other Word Forms of Bar

Noun

Singular:
bar
Plural:
bars

Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Bar

Origin of Bar

  • 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 *barō (“beam, bar, barrier”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰAr- (“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 забо́р (zabór, “fencing, paling, fence”), Ancient Greek φάρος (pháros, “piece of land, furrow, marker, beacon, lighthouse”).

    From Wiktionary

  • Greek baros weight gwerə-1 in Indo-European roots

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • From Ancient Greek βάρος (baros, “weight”), coined circa 1900.

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English barre from Old French barre

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

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