B'AR, n. [If these words are the Eng.bar, the sense is a shoot, that which shoots, passes or is driven.]

1. A piece of wood, iron or other solid matter, long in proportion to its diameter, used for various purposes, but especially for a hinderance or obstruction; as, the bars of a fence or gate; the bar of a door or hatchway. – Numb. iii. 36. Ex. xxvi. 26.
2. Any obstacle which obstructs, hinders or defends; an obstruction; a fortification. – Amos i. Must I new bars to my own joy create. – Dryden.
3. The shore of the sea, which restrains its waters. – Job xxxviii.
4. The railing that incloses the place which counsel occupy in courts of justice. Hence the phrase, at the bar of the court, signifies in open court. Hence also licensed lawyers are called barristers; and hence the whole body of lawyers licensed in a court, are customarily called the bar. A trial at bar, in England, is a trial in the courts of Westminster, opposed to a trial at Nisi Prius, in the circuits.
5. Figuratively, any tribunal; as, the bar of public opinion. Thus the final trial of men is called the bar of God.
6. The inclosed place of a tavern, inn or coffee-house, where the landlord or his servant delivers out liquors, and waits upon customers. – Addison.
7. A bank of sand, gravel or earth, forming a shoal at the mouth of a river or harbor, obstructing entrance, or rendering it difficult.
8. A rock in the sea, according to Brown; or any thing by which structure is held together, according to Johnson; used in Jonah ii.
9. Any thing laid across another, as bars in heraldry, stripes in color, and the like.
10. In the menage, the highest part of the place in a horse's mouth between the grinders and tusks, so that the part of the mouth which lies under and at the side of the bars, retains the name of the gum. Encyc. The upper part of the gums, which bears no teeth, and to which the bit is applied. – Johnson.
11. In music, bars are lines drawn perpendicularly across, the lines of the staff, including between each two, a certain quantity of time, or number of beats.
12. In law a peremptory exception sufficient to destroy the plaintif's action. It is divided into a bar to common intendment, and bar special; bar temporary, and bar perpetual. Bar, to common intendment is an ordinary or general bar, which disables the declaration of the plaintif. A special bar is more than ordinary, as a fine, release, or justification. A temporary bar is that which is good for a time, but may afterward cease. A perpetual bar overthrows the action of the plaintif forever. – Blackstone. Cowel.
13. A bar of gold or silver, is an ingot, lump or wedge, from the mines, run in a mold, and unwrought. A bar of iron is a long piece, wrought in the forge and hammered from a pig.
14. Among printers, the iron with a wooden handle, by which the screw of the press is turned.
15. In the African trade, a denomination of price; payment formerly being made to the Africans in iron bars. – Johnson.

1. To fasten with a bar; as, to bar a door or gate.
2. To hinder; to obstruct; to prevent; as, to bar the entrance of evil.
3. To prevent; to exclude; to hinder; to make impracticable; as, the distance between us bars our intercourse. In this sense, the phrase is often varied, thus: the distance bars me from his aid, or bars him from my aid.
4. To prohibit; to restrain or exclude by express or implied prohibition; as, the statute bars my right; the law bars the use of poisoned weapons.
5. To obstruct, prevent or hinder by any moral obstacle; as, the right is barred by time, or by statute; a release bars the plaintif's recovery.
6. To except; to exclude by exception; as, I bar to-night. – Shak.
7. To cross with stripes of a different color.
8. To bar a rein, in farriery, is an operation upon the legs of a horse, or other parts, to stop malignant humors. This is done by opening the skin above a vein, disengaging it and tying it both above and below, and striking between the two ligatures. – Johnson.
9. To adorn with trappings; a contraction of barb. [See Barb.] – Drayton. Haywood.

1. A piece of wood, metal, or other material, long in proportion to its breadth or thickness, used as a lever and for various other purposes, but especially for a hindrance, obstruction, or fastening; as, the bars of a fence or gate; the bar of a door.
   
   

   Thou shalt make bars of shittim wood.
   Ex. xxvi. 26.

2. To fasten with a bar] as, to bar a door or gate.
3. An indefinite quantity of some substance, so shaped as to be long in proportion to its breadth and thickness; as, a bar of gold or of lead; a bar of soap.
4. To restrict or confine, as if by a bar; to hinder; to obstruct; to prevent; to prohibit; as, to bar the entrance of evil; distance bars our intercourse; the statute bars my right; the right is barred by time; a release bars the plaintiff's recovery; -- sometimes with up.
   
   

   He barely looked the idea in the face, and hastened to bar it in its dungeon.
   Hawthorne.

5. Anything which obstructs, hinders, or prevents; an obstruction; a barrier.
   
   

   Must I new bars to my own joy create?
   Dryden.

6. To except; to exclude by exception.
   
   

   Nay, but I bar to-night: you shall not gauge me
   By what we do to-night.
   Shak.

7. A bank of sand, gravel, or other matter, esp. at the mouth of a river or harbor, obstructing navigation.
8. To cross with one or more stripes or lines.
   
   

   For the sake of distinguishing the feet more clearly, I have barred them singly.
   Burney.

9. Any railing that divides a room, or office, or hall of assembly, in order to reserve a space for those having special privileges; as, the bar of the House of Commons.
10. The railing that incloses the place which counsel occupy in courts of justice. Hence, the phrase at the bar of the court signifies in open court.
    
    
    (b)
11. Any tribunal; as, the bar of public opinion; the bar of God.
12. A barrier or counter, over which liquors and food are passed to customers; hence, the portion of the room behind the counter where liquors for sale are kept.
13. An ordinary, like a fess but narrower, occupying only one fifth part of the field.
14. A broad shaft, or band, or stripe; as, a bar of light; a bar of color.
15. A vertical line across the staff. Bars divide the staff into spaces which represent measures, and are themselves called measures.
    
    

    * A double bar marks the end of a strain or main division of a movement, or of a whole piece of music; in psalmody, it marks the end of a line of poetry. The term bar is very often loosely used for measure, i.e., for such length of music, or of silence, as is included between one bar and the next; as, a passage of eight bars; two bars' rest.

16. The space between the tusks and grinders in the upper jaw of a horse, in which the bit is placed.
    
    
    (b)
17. A drilling or tamping rod.
    
    
    (b)
18. A gatehouse of a castle or fortified town.
    
    
    (b)