bar sinister
Americannoun
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Heraldry. (not in technical use) a bend sinister or a baton.
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the proof, condition, or stigma of illegitimate birth.
noun
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(not in heraldic usage) another name for bend sinister
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the condition, implication, or stigma of being of illegitimate birth
Etymology
Origin of bar sinister
First recorded in 1815–25
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Entitled A Family Album, it opens with an ancestral chart that looks at first glance like the Stuart family tree, minus the bar sinister.
From Time Magazine Archive
Despite so much blue blood, the bar sinister seared James Smithson all his life.
From Time Magazine Archive
One result: a son, James Smithson, who became a leading chemist, but because of the bar sinister never a duke.
From Time Magazine Archive
Yet Christian was branded with the bar sinister; the only title he could really claim was, affectionate or derisive, "General Crack."
From Time Magazine Archive
Being very thin she, too, like Papik, suffered from the bar sinister of nature.
From The Eternal Maiden by Harré, T. Everett
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
