crowbar
Americannoun
-
crowbars
plural
verb (used with object)
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
See Examples For:
“There was nothing else—not even a crowbar or a pickax—to break through the concrete.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 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
If our hearts weren’t already open, they’ve just been forced ajar with a rusty, emotional crowbar.
From Salon ● Nov. 30, 2025
With a crowbar I could have reached down and touched them, felt the pulse of the world’s information traveling through my fingertips.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 28, 2025
If we thrust a crowbar between the spokes of a wheel it makes no difference where we do it, the wheel stops turning.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
They had all the equipment at the ready: crowbars, shovels, and mallets.
From Slate ● Dec. 15, 2024
Footage from the area shows residents digging in brown earth with their bare hands, or using hoes, sticks, crowbars and other tools.
From Reuters ● Nov. 23, 2022
Prosecuting at the sentencing hearing, Richard Posner told Plymouth Crown Court Ackland had searched DIY stores for tools including hammers, crowbars and cutting tools.
From BBC ● May 19, 2022
A store employee told The Times in a phone interview that men took sledgehammers and crowbars and some wore sweatshirts with hoodies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 27, 2021
The men shoved and lifted it with crowbars into position against the gate.
From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway
"Nothing has been crowbarred in and these aren't random fillers, they are wonderful bits that we didn't ever want to get rid of but had to."
From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2024
Springboks skipper Kolisi became the third player to go to the sin-bin - his hit on Savea slipping high - and New Zealand, briefly back level in terms of personnel, crowbarred the game open again.
From BBC ● Oct. 28, 2023
At one point, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Davy Klaassen and a returned Wayne Rooney were crowbarred into the same team.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 14, 2020
Crisp, thin French fries are crowbarred into the taco, gently punctuated with green and red salsa and the bracing freshness of cilantro and onion.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2019
We began to climb hills, and then we stopped—at night in darkness, while men threw sand under the wheels and crowbarred the track and then "guessed" that we might proceed.
From From Sea to Sea Letters of Travel by Rudyard Kipling
Sometimes it goes against Ancelotti’s own preferences but he is not just crowbarring players in any old place to get as many stars in the side as he can.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 27, 2014
That mention of the Mad Squirrels, a nickname that is always worth crowbarring in, also allows a quick nod to the quietly impressive progress that is being made in the Czech Republic.
From The Guardian ● Feb. 12, 2013
But with our third paragraph well underway and confidence about crowbarring a gag in any sentence now, let's address Barcelona's bid, believed to be worth just over £29m.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 2, 2010
“Well, in crowbarring me out of your scheme of life, if you insist on knowing,” were the words that came from the husband sitting so close beside me.
From The Prairie Child by Ward. E. F. (Edmund Franklin)
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
