debar

American  

[dih-bahr] / dɪˈbɑr /

verb (used with object)

• debars,
  present (3rd person singular)
• debarred,
  past participle,  past
• debarring
  present participle

1. to shut out or exclude from a place or condition.

   to debar all those who are not members.

   Antonyms:

   admit

2. to hinder or prevent; prohibit.

   to debar an action.

   Synonyms:

   interdict

   Antonyms:

   permit

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debar British  

/ dɪˈbɑː /

verb

1. to exclude from a place, a right, etc; bar

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• debarment
  noun

Inflected Forms

Participles

• debarring
  present
• debarred
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• debar
  simple
• debars
  simple
• have debarred
  perfect
• has debarred
  perfect
• am debarring
  progressive
• are debarring
  progressive
• is debarring
  progressive
• have been debarring
  perfect progressive
• has been debarring
  perfect progressive

Past

• debarred
  simple
• had debarred
  perfect
• was debarring
  progressive
• were debarring
  progressive
• had been debarring
  perfect progressive

Future

• will debar
  simple
• will have debarred
  perfect
• will be debarring
  progressive
• will have been debarring
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of debar

1400–50; late Middle English < Middle French, Old French desbarrer to lock out, bar. See de-, bar ¹

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Explanation

To debar is to officially bar, ban, or exclude someone from doing something. Debar can also mean to prevent something from happening. If you have a hat club, you can debar anyone who’s not wearing one. If someone is barred from entering, they are prevented from entering. Oddly enough, to debar them means the same thing. If you're debarred from a school, you can no longer attend. If a politician is debarred from office, they've been thrown out. You can also debar events. Eating well and exercising can debar many health problems. This kind of debarring means the same as averting. People try to debar negative things from happening.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

debar debars debarred debarring

It is relatively rare for HHS to debar an NIH grantee.

From Science Magazine ● May 15, 2024

On Dec. 30, Labor announced a move to debar or prohibit any new federal contracts with Restaurant Associates.

From Washington Post ● Jan. 4, 2017

You would think that views like that might just debar you from holding that office, but no.

From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2015

“Sexual orientation does not debar anyone from God’s love,” it said in a statement in March.

From New York Times ● May 22, 2015

The advantage of this system over a cup competition is, that interest is kept up during the whole season, and one defeat does not debar a club from eventually coming out first.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 5 "Fleury, Claude" to "Foraker" by Various

The temptation to do this presses heavily on those whose occupations end with daylight and on those multitudes of elderly folk whose chief sorrow now is that age debars them from public service.

From Time Magazine Archive

This debars us from devoting our best hours and the best part of our days to art, even though that art be the greatest and worthiest.

From Human, All-Too-Human, Part II by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

But you're crooked," retorted the King, "and that debars you.

From The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum

Accordingly, only that reason debars merit of faith which enables one to see by knowledge what is proposed for belief: and this is demonstrative argument.

From Summa Theologica, Part III (Tertia Pars) From the Complete American Edition by Saint Thomas Aquinas

My scepticism debars me from all firm convictions.

From Without Dogma by Henryk Sienkiewicz

Horowitz criticized the government’s failure early on to use the “Do Not Pay” Treasury Department database, designed to keep government money from going to debarred contractors, fugitives, felons or people convicted of tax fraud.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 11, 2023

The divorced, disgraced, and debarred physician was ready to come out of the shadows: He was an illegal abortionist and had been for more than 35 years and 25,000 procedures.

From Slate ● Jun. 15, 2022

The U.N. suspended work with Glocoms in 2013 after a reporter informed it that the World Bank had debarred the company.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 23, 2016

Catholics, meanwhile, had been deliberately debarred from Parliament by the oath, which involved recognising that the monarch rather than the Pope was in charge of the Church.

From BBC ● May 20, 2015

Private Morris debarred our passage with his arm.

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson

Depend upon my sincerity for this," Defoe answers, "that I am far from debarring you.

From Daniel Defoe by William Minto

If I did, no doubt, by the same parental authority, my epistle would be intercepted—still further compromising her—still further debarring the chance of a reconciliation with her father!

From The Child Wife by Mayne Reid

For we like to keep our coin up to our own standard, debarring no man from making better for himself.

From The Hymns of Martin Luther Set to their original melodies; with an English version by Leonard Woolsey Bacon

This comprehensive Act, calculated to overawe the Army Magnates by debarring them from all power of money-raising, had been hurried through because of signs that nothing less would avail, if even that would now suffice.

From The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660 by David Masson

Exclu′sive, able or tending to exclude: debarring from participation: sole: not taking into account.—n. one of a number who exclude others from their society.—adv.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various

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