bar

bar n 1 Bar, barrier, barricade mean something which hinders or obstructs. Both bar and barrier apply to something that prevents free communication or passage; more specifically, bar frequently suggests a restriction of ingress or egress, while barrier suggests an obstacle to advance, progress, or attack; bar also may suggest a simple structure and barrier a more extensive or elaborate one

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the bars of a prison

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a harbor bar

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a mountain barrier

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erect dikes as a barrier against the sea

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a barrier reef

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Religious myths may come to be a bar to progress in science— Inge

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a perpetual and impassable barrier... between the white race and the one which they had reduced to slavery— Taney

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Barricade is chiefly used in the sense of an obstruction thrown across a street or way to check a hostile advance

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the fighting at the barricades in Paris during the Commune

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2 *obstacle, obstruction, impediment, snag

Analogous words: hindrance, block, dam (see corresponding verbs at HINDER): *difficulty, hardship, vicissitude

Antonyms: advantage

Contrasted words: odds, edge (see ADVANTAGE): help, aid, assistance (see under HELP vb)

3 *shoal, bank, reef

bar vb obstruct, block, dam, impede (see HINDER)

Analogous words: shut out, debar, *exclude: *prevent, preclude, obviate: *forbid, prohibit, interdict: *close, shut

Antonyms: admit: open

Contrasted words: accept, *receive, take