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

The agency also is seeking to debar the company’s principal officer, Dick Cattani.

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

Sir H. Giffard moved a resolution seeking to debar Mr. Bradlaugh from both oath and affirmation.

From The True Story of my Parliamentary Struggle by Charles Bradlaugh

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

Those who, though able to preach worthily, are afraid through excessive humility; and those whom imperfection or age debars from preaching, and yet rashness impels to it.

From A Source Book of Medi?val History Documents Illustrative of European Life and Institutions from the German Invasions to the Renaissance by Frederic Austin Ogg

Do you imagine that the colour of my cloth debars me from—from taking the part of a lady whose name has been dragged before the public?

From The Dop Doctor by Richard Dehan

By choosing to write such a story, or by choosing to write any definite story, a writer debars himself from creating any atmosphere not involved in the story selected for writing.

From The Technique of Fiction Writing by Robert Saunders Dowst

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

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

Ancient women were debarred from holding power but sometimes did so from behind the scenes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026

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 order stipulates that officials who violate the pledge can be debarred from their post and future lobbying, and possibly sued in civil court.

From The Guardian ● Jan. 28, 2017

For this doctrine, as may be presumed, he was debarred from all preaching.

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

No longer the lean ascetic, debarring his soul of her rightful pleasures; but embracing all the joys of life, and combining pleasure with knowledge.

From The Browning Cyclop?dia A Guide to the Study of the Works of Robert Browning by Edward Berdoe

Its good qualities are offset by two defects: thin skin which bursts easily, thus wholly debarring it from distant markets; and flavor and appearance not sufficiently good to make it a table-grape.

From Manual of American Grape-Growing by U. P. Hedrick

The duke had insisted on the incognito as debarring Maximilian from all claim to attention from a prince like himself whose rank was not concealed.

From The Life of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France by Charles Duke Yonge

Yet there was both rules and practice in the church of Scotland for debarring ignorant and scandalous persons from the sacrament before he was born, though all was put out of course under the prelates.

From The Works of Mr. George Gillespie (Vol. 1 of 2) by George Gillespie

By much musing on this matter, I have convinced myself that man is not capable of debarring himself utterly from death, since it is evidently a remedy for many evils that nothing else would cure.

From Septimius Felton, or, the Elixir of Life by Nathaniel Hawthorne

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