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crowbar

American  
[kroh-bahr] / ˈkroʊˌbɑr /

noun

  1. Also called crow.  a steel bar, usually flattened and slightly bent at one or both ends, used as a lever.

verb (used with object)

crowbarred, crowbarring

  1. to pry open, loosen, etc., with a crowbar.

    We had to crowbar a window to get in.
crowbar British  
/ ˈkrəʊˌbɑː /

noun

  1. a heavy iron lever with one pointed end, and one forged into a wedge shape

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of crowbar

1740–50, crow 1 + bar 1; so called because one end was beak-shaped

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.

Whoever is given the job of informing him of that had better take a handful of sedatives and a crowbar to pry the president off the wall of the Oval Office.

From Salon • Apr. 10, 2026

Armed with nothing but a crowbar and shovel in the hills of Somaliland, Ahmed Ibrahim hacks away at rocks where he and fellow miners have already found tonnes of lithium.

From Barron's • Feb. 25, 2026

“He wants to put a crowbar in the spokes of our wheels within a nanosecond,” Newsom said.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 6, 2024

Though there has been speculation about Bairstow returning to the England team at the top of the order, coach Brendon McCullum has said he will not "crowbar" players in.

From BBC • Mar. 30, 2023

He took his buckets and jars and his crowbar and put his sandwiches in one pocket and his thermos bottle in another pocket and he went down the cliff to the tidal flat.

From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck

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.