1. A room or establishment where alcoholic drinks are served over a counter
   "he drowned his sorrows in whiskey at the bar";
   - barroom [N. Amer], saloon, ginmill [N. Amer, informal], taproom, cantina, saloon bar [Brit], lounge bar [Brit]
    
2. A counter where you can obtain food or drink
   "he bought a hot dog and a coke at the bar"
    
3. A rigid piece of metal or wood; usually used as a fastening or obstruction or weapon
   "there were bars in the windows to prevent escape"
    
4. A horizontal rod that serves as a support for gymnasts as they perform exercises
   "The gymnast gracefully swung around the high bar"
    
5. A narrow marking of a different colour or texture from the background
   "a green toad with small black stripes or bars";
   - stripe, streak
    
6. An obstruction (usually metal) placed at the top of a goal
   "it was an excellent kick but the ball hit the bar"
    
7. The act of preventing
   "there was no bar against leaving";
   - prevention
    
8. (law) the body of individuals qualified to practice law in a particular jurisdiction
   "he was admitted to the bar in New Jersey";
   - legal profession, legal community
    
9. (law) a railing that encloses the part of the courtroom where the judges and lawyers sit and the case is tried
   "spectators were not allowed past the bar"
    
10. A block of solid substance (such as soap or wax)
    "a bar of chocolate";
    - cake
     
11. [Brit] A heating element in an electric fire
    "an electric fire with three bars"
     
12. Musical notation for a repeating pattern of musical beats
    "the orchestra omitted the last twelve bars of the song";
    - measure
     
13. A submerged (or partly submerged) ridge in a river or along a shore
    "the boat ran aground on a submerged bar in the river"
     
14. (meteorology) a unit of pressure equal to a million dynes per square centimetre
    "unfortunately some writers have used bar for one dyne per square centimetre"

1. Disallow membership or entry
   "He was barred from membership in the club";
   - debar, exclude
    
2. Render unsuitable for passage
   "bar the streets";
   - barricade, block, blockade, stop, block off, block up
    
3. Secure with, or as if with, bars
   "He barred the door"
    
4. Expel, as if by official decree
   "he was barred from his own country";
   - banish, relegate

1. With the exception of
   - except

1. A portable .30 calibre automatic rifle operated by gas pressure and fed by cartridges from a magazine; used by United States troops in World War I and in World War II and in the Korean War
   - Browning automatic rifle

Sounds like: baa

Derived forms: bars, barred, barring

Type of: automatic, automatic rifle, barrier, block, close up, counter, disallow, expel, fasten, fix, forbid, heating element, hinderance [rare], hindrance, impede, impediment, impedimenta, implement, interdict, interference, jam, kick out [informal], machine rifle, marking, musical notation, nix [N. Amer, informal], obstruct, obstructer, obstruction, obstructor, obturate, occlude, pressure unit, profession, prohibit, proscribe, rail, railing, ridge, room, secure, support, throw out, veto

Antonym: unbar

Part of: boozer [Brit, informal], court, courtroom, gin mill [N. Amer, informal], goal, groggery [US, archaic], high bar, horizontal bar, inn [Brit], parallel bars, pothouse [archaic], pub [Brit, Cdn], public house [Brit], saloon [Brit], tap house [archaic], taphouse [archaic], tavern, watering hole [informal]

Encyclopedia: Bar, Serbia and Montenegro