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Webster 1913 Edition


Barrier

Bar′ri-er

,
Noun.
[OE.
barrere
,
barere
, F.
barrière
, fr.
barre
bar. See
Bar
,
Noun.
]
1.
(Fort.)
A carpentry obstruction, stockade, or other obstacle made in a passage in order to stop an enemy.
2.
A fortress or fortified town, on the frontier of a country, commanding an avenue of approach.
3.
pl.
A fence or railing to mark the limits of a place, or to keep back a crowd.
No sooner were the
barriers
opened, than he paced into the lists.
Sir W. Scott.
4.
Any obstruction; anything which hinders approach or attack.
“Constitutional barriers.”
Hopkinson.
5.
Any limit or boundary; a line of separation.
’Twixt that [instinct] and reason, what a nice
barrier
!
Pope.
Barrier gate
,
a heavy gate to close the opening through a barrier.
Barrier reef
,
a form of coral reef which runs in the general direction of the shore, and incloses a lagoon channel more or less extensive.
To fight at barriers
,
to fight with a barrier between, as a martial exercise.
[Obs.]

Webster 1828 Edition


Barrier

BAR'RIER.

[See bar]
1.
In fortification, a kind of fence made in a passage or retrenchment, composed of great stakes, with transums or overthwart rafters, to stop an enemy.
2.
A wall for defense.
3.
A fortress or fortified town on the frontier of a country.
4.
Any obstruction; any thing which confines, or which hinders approach,or attack; as constitutional barriers.
5.
A bar to mark the limits of a place; any limit, or boundary; a line of separation.

Definition 2024


barrier

barrier

English

Noun

barrier (plural barriers)

  1. A structure that bars passage.
  2. An obstacle or impediment.
    • 2013 June 1, “Towards the end of poverty”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 11:
      America’s poverty line is $63 a day for a family of four. In the richer parts of the emerging world $4 a day is the poverty barrier. But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 ([]): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.
  3. A boundary or limit.
  4. (grammar) A node (in government and binding theory) said to intervene between other nodes A and B if it is a potential governor for B, c-commands B, and does not c-command A.
  5. (physiology) A separation between two areas of the body where specialized cells allow the entry of certain substances but prevent other substances to enter.

Derived terms

Synonyms

  • See also Wikisaurus:hindrance

Translations