(bars, barring, barred)
Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English.
1.
A bar is a place where you can buy and drink alcoholic drinks. (mainly AM)
...Devil's Herd, the city's most popular country-western bar.
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2.
A bar is a room in a pub or hotel where alcoholic drinks are served. (BRIT)
I'll see you in the bar later...
On the ship there are video lounges, a bar and a small duty-free shop.
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3.
A bar is a counter on which alcoholic drinks are served.
Michael was standing alone by the bar when Brian rejoined him...
He leaned forward across the bar.
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4.
A bar is a long, straight, stiff piece of metal.
...a brick building with bars across the ground floor windows.
...a crowd throwing stones and iron bars.
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5.
If you say that someone is behind bars, you mean that they are in prison.
Fisher was behind bars last night, charged with attempted murder...
Nearly 5,000 people a year are put behind bars over motoring penalties.
PHRASE: PHR after v, v-link PHR
6.
A bar of something is a piece of it which is roughly rectangular.
What is your favourite chocolate bar?
...a bar of soap.
N-COUNT: with supp
7.
If you bar a door, you place something in front of it or a piece of wood or metal across it in order to prevent it from being opened.
For added safety, bar the door to the kitchen.
VERB: V n
• barred
The windows were closed and shuttered, the door was barred.
ADJ: usu v-link ADJ
8.
If you bar someone's way, you prevent them from going somewhere or entering a place, by blocking their path.
He stepped in front of her, barring her way.
= block
VERB: V n
9.
If someone is barred from a place or from doing something, they are officially forbidden to go there or to do it.
Amnesty workers have been barred from Sri Lanka since 1982...
Many jobs were barred to them.
= ban
VERB: usu passive, be V-ed from n, be V-ed to n
10.
If something is a bar to doing a particular thing, it prevents someone from doing it.
One of the fundamental bars to communication is the lack of a universally spoken, common language...
N-COUNT: usu N to n/-ing
11.
If you say that there are no holds barred when people are fighting or competing for something, you mean that they are no longer following any rules in their efforts to win.
It is a war with no holds barred and we must prepare to resist...
PHRASE
12.
You can use bar when you mean 'except'. For example, all the work bar the washing means all the work except the washing.
Bar a plateau in 1989, there has been a rise in inflation ever since the mid-1980's...
The aim of the service was to offer everything the independent investor wanted, bar advice.
= save
PREP
•
You use bar none to add emphasis to a statement that someone or something is the best of their kind.
He is simply the best goalscorer we have ever had, bar none.
= without exception
PHRASE [emphasis]
13.
The Bar is used to refer to the profession of a barrister in England, or of any kind of lawyer in the United States.
Robert was planning to read for the Bar.
N-PROPER: the N
14.
In music, a
bar is one of the several short parts of the same length into which a piece of music is divided. (
mainly BRIT; in AM, use measure
)
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