a horizontal bar on a typewriter keyboard that is depressed in order to resume typing one space to the right.
a horizontal bar on a computer keyboard that is depressed in order to move the cursor one space to the right or, often, to perform some function in a program.
First recorded in 1885–90
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In another, they offered longer access to social media the faster subjects could tap a space bar.
From Science Magazine ● Nov. 7, 2023
Instead of trying to cram a small dining table into the space, bar stools can be used as a counter instead.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 11, 2023
My hand hovered over the space bar as I hit play and pause over and over again to document every frame.
From Washington Post ● May 20, 2022
You’ll now see the keyboard’s language named on the space bar.
From The Verge ● Oct. 1, 2021
The rows of letters on the computer keyboard had looked like a toy to him, and he’d reached one finger up and tapped the space bar, over and over again.
From "Among the Hidden" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Mostly there was a sheet in his type-mill, but his fingers only fluttered the space-bar.
From She Buildeth Her House by Comfort, William Wistar
Do not count that as one, in leaving the three spaces suggested, but touch your space-bar three times.
From Writing the Photoplay by Esenwein, J. Berg (Joseph Berg)
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.
