Barrier

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Barrier \Bar"ri*er\, n. [OE. barrere, barere, F. barri[`e]re,
     fr. barre bar. See {Bar}, n.]
     1. (Fort.) A carpentry obstruction, stockade, or other
        obstacle made in a passage in order to stop an enemy.
        [1913 Webster]
  


     2. A fortress or fortified town, on the frontier of a
        country, commanding an avenue of approach.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. pl. A fence or railing to mark the limits of a place, or
        to keep back a crowd.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              No sooner were the barriers opened, than he paced
              into the lists.                       --Sir W.
                                                    Scott.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. Any obstruction; anything which hinders approach or
        attack. "Constitutional barriers." --Hopkinson.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     5. Any limit or boundary; a line of separation.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              'Twixt that [instinct] and reason, what a nice
              barrier!                              --Pope.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Barrier gate}, a heavy gate to close the opening through a
        barrier.
  
     {Barrier reef}, a form of coral reef which runs in the
        general direction of the shore, and incloses a lagoon
        channel more or less extensive.
  
     {To fight at barriers}, to fight with a barrier between, as a
        martial exercise. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  barrier
       n 1: a structure or object that impedes free movement
       2: any condition that makes it difficult to make progress or to
          achieve an objective; "intolerance is a barrier to
          understanding" [syn: {roadblock}]
       3: anything serving to maintain separation by obstructing
          vision or access

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  161 Moby Thesaurus words for "barrier":
     abatis, advanced work, arch dam, backstop, balistraria, balustrade,
     bamboo curtain, bank, banquette, bar, barbed-wire entanglement,
     barbican, barrage, barricade, bartizan, bastion, battlement,
     bear-trap dam, beaver dam, blank wall, blind alley, blind gut,
     block, blockade, blockage, bolt, boom, bottleneck, boundary,
     brattice, breakwater, breastwork, brick wall, buffer, buffer state,
     bulkhead, bulwark, bumper, casemate, cecum, cheval-de-frise,
     choking, choking off, circumvallation, clog, cloison, cofferdam,
     collision mat, congestion, constipation, contravallation,
     costiveness, counterscarp, cul-de-sac, curtain, cushion, dam,
     dead end, defense, demibastion, diaphragm, dike, dissepiment,
     ditch, dividing line, dividing wall, division, drawbridge,
     earthwork, embankment, embolism, embolus, enclosure, entanglement,
     escarp, escarpment, fence, fender, fieldwork, fortalice,
     fortification, frontier, gate, glacis, gorge, gravity dam, groin,
     ha-ha, hindrance, hydraulic-fill dam, impasse, impediment, infarct,
     infarction, interseptum, iron curtain, jam, jetty, leaping weir,
     levee, limit, lock, logjam, loophole, lunette, machicolation,
     mantelet, mat, merlon, midriff, midsection, milldam, moat, mole,
     mound, obstacle, obstipation, obstruction, outwork, pad, padlock,
     palisade, panel, parados, parapet, paries, partition, party wall,
     portcullis, postern gate, property line, rail, railing, rampart,
     ravelin, redan, redoubt, roadblock, rock-fill dam, sally port,
     scarp, sconce, sealing off, seawall, separation, septulum, septum,
     shock pad, shutter dam, stockade, stone wall, stop, stoppage,
     strangulation, tenaille, vallation, vallum, wall, weir, wicket dam,
     work