Barrier
['bærɪə] or ['bærɪɚ]
Definition
(noun.) a structure or object that impedes free movement.
(noun.) any condition that makes it difficult to make progress or to achieve an objective; 'intolerance is a barrier to understanding'.
(noun.) anything serving to maintain separation by obstructing vision or access.
Checker: Yale--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) A carpentry obstruction, stockade, or other obstacle made in a passage in order to stop an enemy.
(n.) A fortress or fortified town, on the frontier of a country, commanding an avenue of approach.
(n.) A fence or railing to mark the limits of a place, or to keep back a crowd.
(n.) An any obstruction; anything which hinders approach or attack.
(n.) Any limit or boundary; a line of separation.
Edited by Jacqueline
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Obstruction, obstacle, hinderance, bar, BARRICADE, stop, impediment.
Editor: Moore
Definition
n. a defence against attack: a limit or boundary: a fence railing gate where customs are collected: the lists in a tournament: any obstacle that keeps apart: (pl.) a martial exercise in 15th and 16th centuries.—v.t. to shut by means of a barrier.—n. Bar′rier-reef a coral-reef surrounding an island or fringing a coast with a navigable channel inside.—Barrier Act an act passed by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1697 as a security against innovations decreeing that changes in the law of the Church even when approved by the Assembly shall not become law till approved also by a majority of presbyteries.
Checked by Cindy
Examples
- Where could a key be a safeguard, or a padlock a barrier? Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- I cried as we approached the arena's barrier wall. Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Gods of Mars.
- Coming from the northeast as they did, they were able to outflank the great barrier of the Taurus Mountains, which had hitherto held back the Moslems. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Resolute, however, to rejoin him, I penetrated the living barrier, creeping under where I could not get between or over. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- At any moment, however, the barrier might fall, and Justinian lost no time in rendering the guns innocuous, if he were forced to retreat up the gorge. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- I wish to pull down the barrier, so that when the pirates come up to assault, they will find no difficulty in passing up the gorge. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- Presently carriages with travellers began to leave the town, galloping away by the Ghent barrier. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- Defarge got upon the box, and gave the word To the Barrier! Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- She was in a front row, by the side of a man whom he had never seen since his arrival at the Barrier, but whom he directly remembered as Defarge. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- My old pain has given me a power that has brought us through the barrier, and gained us news of Charles there, and brought us here. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- But the sense of the waning hour made him desperate: he could not bear the thought that a barrier of words should drop between them again. Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence.
- This strip between the ice barrier and the mountains is considered neutral ground. Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Gods of Mars.
- An errand of generosity brought him here unknown to us; he was stopped at the barrier, and sent to prison. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- The position had been such that nothing more could be said without, in the first place, breaking down a barrier; and that was not to be done. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- How could he dream of her defying the barrier that her husband had placed between them? George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- The barriers between Europe and Asia set up by the religious feud of Christianity and Islam were lowered. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- The barriers between Africa, Asia, and Europe were lowered or bridged by that time, but mixing had not gone far. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- But, on the other hand, man is usually a wandering and enterprising animal, for whom there exist few insurmountable barriers. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- I was girded, walled in, vaulted over, by seven-fold barriers of loneliness. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- It was cut off from the civilizations to the west and to the east by vast mountain barriers and desert regions. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- The latter, at the same time would travel further and further southward, unless they were stopped by barriers, in which case they would perish. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
- The assailants have won the barriers, have they not? Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- An undesirable society, in other words, is one which internally and externally sets up barriers to free intercourse and communication of experience. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- These barriers mean absence of fluent and free intercourse. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- Dorothea refrained from saying what was in her mind--how well she knew that there might be invisible barriers to speech between husband and wife. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- All eyes were turned to see the new champion which these sounds announced, and no sooner were the barriers opened than he paced into the lists. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- The barriers were too many and too high for such a leap. Charles Dickens. Hard Times.
- Tars Tarkas rode ahead and, leaning down to the latch, threw the barriers open, while I held the loose thoats from breaking back to the herd. Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Gods of Mars.
- But that cannot be; the human senses are insurmountable barriers to our union. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
Editor: Miriam