barrier
Americannoun
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anything built or serving to bar passage, as a railing, fence, or the like.
People may pass through the barrier only when their train is announced.
- Synonyms:
- impediment, hindrance, obstruction, wall, palisade
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any natural bar or obstacle.
a mountain barrier.
- Synonyms:
- impediment, hindrance, obstruction
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anything that restrains or obstructs progress, access, etc..
a trade barrier.
- Synonyms:
- impediment, hindrance, obstruction
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a limit or boundary of any kind.
the barriers of caste.
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Physical Geography. an Antarctic ice shelf or ice front.
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History/Historical. barriers, the palisade or railing surrounding the ground where tourneys and jousts were carried on.
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Archaic. a fortress or stockade.
noun
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anything serving to obstruct passage or to maintain separation, such as a fence or gate
-
anything that prevents or obstructs passage, access, or progress
a barrier of distrust
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anything that separates or hinders union
a language barrier
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an exposed offshore sand bar separated from the shore by a lagoon
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( as modifier )
a barrier beach
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(sometimes capital) that part of the Antarctic icecap extending over the sea
Related Words
See bar 1.
Etymology
Origin of barrier
First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English, from Middle French barriere ( barre bar 1 + -iere, from Latin -āria -ary ); replacing Middle English barrere, from Anglo-French, from Medieval Latin barrera
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.
It’s obvious that once again, the band all have some kind of printed remarks they’re supposed to be following, but as we saw in the previous year, this is not a barrier to Beatle humor.
From Salon
Two such condensates were separated by a narrow optical barrier formed by a focused laser beam.
From Science Daily
Instead of slamming directly into a flat barrier, particles move along the surface and are guided onward toward the gullet.
From Science Daily
“Some financial barriers will make some options unavailable. It is daunting,” Keating said.
From MarketWatch
“A key risk to China’s green technology exports is other governments raising trade barriers in response to rising imports from China,” he says.
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.
