Forms: 4 barer, 4–5 barrere, 4–6 barrer, 5 barreere, barryȝer, 5–6 barryer, 6 baryer, -ier, -iar, 6– barrier. [ME. barrere, a. AF. barrere, OF. barrière (= Pr., It. barriera, Sp., med.L. barrera):—late L. barrāria, f. barra BAR. Subsequently influenced by continental Fr. spelling.]
1. gen. A fence or material obstruction of any kind erected (or serving) to bar the advance of persons or things, or to prevent access to a place.
a. orig. A palisade or stockade erected to bar the way of an enemy, or defend a gate or passage; an external defence.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1239. He brek þe bareres as bylyue, & þe burȝ after.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumb., 4668. Enfachoun ys to þe ȝeate y-come … And at þe barers he hym sette.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., IX. vii. 70. At þe Barreris he faucht sa welle.
c. 1430. Lydg., Stor. Thebes, III. (R.). Barbicans and bulwerkes … Barreres, chaines, and ditches.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 24. Barrere, or barreere (v.r. barryȝer), barraria, barrus.
1490. Caxton, Eneydos, lv. 152. Camilla and Mesapus rode all armed … vnto the barryers.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. xxxviii. 52. He cast hymselfe bytwene the barrers and the gate.
1721. Lond. Gaz., No. 5928/6. The outer Barrier of that Place.
fig. 1713. Young, Last Day, III. 124. Who burst the barriers of my peaceful grave?
b. transf. A fortress or fortified town that commands the entrance into a country; a ‘bulwark.’
1600. Holland, Livy, IX. xxxii. 337 b. Which cittie [Sutrium] … was (as a man would say) the verie Barriers [claustra] of all Hetruria.
1709. [cf. c].
1716–8. Lady Montague, Lett., I. xxvii. 86. Belgrade was formerly the barrier of Hungary.
† c. A fortified frontier; a frontier generally; spec. a name formerly given to a district that commanded the frontier of the Netherlands. Obs.
1709. Addison, Tatler, No. 20, ¶ 10. The Dutch are to have for their Barriers, Newport, Berg, St. Vinox … Lille.
1713. Lond. Gaz., No. 5180/2. The Frontier-Places of the Dutch-Barrier.
1775. Adair, Amer. Ind., 463. Without allowing them any militia, even on their barriers.
1835. Penny Cycl., III. 502. The Treaty of the Barrier is an instance of a similar species of political adjustment.
d. A fence, or railing, to prevent access to any reserved place.
1570. B. Googe, Pop. Kingd., IV. (1880), 51 b. With tapers all the people come, and at the barriers stay, Where downe upon their knees they fall, and night and day they pray.
Mod. Strong barriers were erected at each end of the street.
e. Applied to the carcer or starting-place in the ancient race-course.
1600. Holland, Livy, VIII. xx. 295. The Barriers [carceres], from whence the horses and their chariots are let forth.
1656. Cowley, Pind. Odes, Wks. 1710, I. 203. How swiftly [has he] run, And born the Noble Prize away, Whilst other Youths yet at the Barrier stay?
1880. Lewis & Short, Lat. Dict., Carcer … the barrier or starting-place in the race-course.
f. In continental towns: The gate at which custom duties are collected.
1825. T. Jefferson, Autobiog., I. 86. The oppressions of the tithes … the gabelles, the farms and the barriers.
[a. 1847. Mrs. Sherwood, Lady of Manor, I. iv. 96. Versailles is distant about ten miles from the barriere of Paris.]
attrib. 1804. Edin. Rev., IV. 47. The barrier duties.
g. Coal-mining. ‘A breadth of coal left against an adjoining royalty, for security against casualty arising from water or foul air.’
1851. Coal-tr. Terms Northumbld. & Durh., 6. Barriers are left of various thicknesses … varying … from 10 to 50 yards.
2. spec. in pl. The palisades enclosing the ground where a tournament, tilting, or other martial contest or exhibition was held; the lists. Also, a low railing or fence running down the center of the lists on opposite sides of which, and in opposite directions the combatants rode, reaching their lances across.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 79. To challenge me unto the Barriers. Ibid., 82. One champion is taken from the Barriers.
1817. Scott, Ivanhoe, viii. At length the barriers were opened, and five knights advanced slowly into the area.
† b. Hence, the expression To fight at barriers, and Barriers as the name of a martial exercise in 15th and 16th centuries. Obs. exc. Hist.
1494. Fabyan, an. 1546 (R.). Chalengours … at tilt, barriers and turney.
1532. Act 24 Hen. VIII., xiii. Iustes, tourneis, barriers … or other marcial feates.
1583. Golding, Calvin on Deut. xii. 67. Like the Game of the Barriers wherein he that winneth today looseth tomorrow.
1608. Middleton, Fam. Love, III. vi. Wks. II. 159. To see my gallants play at barriers with scourge-sticks.
1616. Bullokar, Barriers, a war-like exercise of men fighting together with short swords, and within some appointed compasse.
1625. Fletcher, Noble Gentl., II. i. 32. You shall not see a mask or Barriers Or tilting or a solemn christning.
1625. Bacon, Masques, Ess. (Arb.), 540. For Iusts, and Tourneys, and Barriers; The Glories of them, are chiefly in the chariots, wherein the Challengers make their Entry.
1636. Randolph, in Ann. Dubrensia (1877), 19. What is the Barriers, but a Courtly way Of our more doune-right sport, the Cudgell-play?
1650. Bp. Hall, Balm of Gilead, 104. [He] puts him upon Tiltings, and Barriers, and publique Duels.
1839. Keightley, Hist. Eng., I. 445. He frequently fought at barriers.
fig. 1622. Wither, in Farr’s S. P. (1848), 219. These long-gowned warriers, who play at Westminster, unarm’d, at barriers.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 220. As he, who fought at Barriers with Salmasius Engag’d with nothing but his Stile and Phrases.
3. Any natural obstacle that stops or obstructs passage, defends from foes, prevents access, or produces separation; a separating boundary-line.
1703. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1732), 32. In order to pass this Barrier, we turned up on the left hand.
1725. Pope, Odyss., VI. 243 (J.).
| Safe in the love of heav’n, an ocean flows | |
| Around our realm, a barrier from the foes. |
1747. in Col. Rec. Penn., V. 152. The Colonies of New Jersey and Pennsylvania will have but a very thin Barrier between them.
c. 1854. Stanley, Sinai & Pal., iii. (1858), 174. This plain was encompassed with a barrier of heights.
1855. Prescott, Philip II., I. II. vi. 207. No mountain barrier lay between France and Flanders.
4. Anything immaterial that stops advance hostile or friendly, that defends from attack, prevents intercourse or union, or keeps separate and apart.
1702. Pope, Thebais, 20. Fix, o Muse! the barrier of thy song at Œdipus.
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Time, an. 1685 (R.). The tests stood as a barrier to defend us from popery.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., III. 733. A good man, and an angel! these between How thin the barrier?
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., I. 60. Every barrier of the Roman constitution had been levelled by the vast ambition of the dictator.
1797. Godwin, Enquirer, II. xii. 480. He … erects a barrier between himself and his reader.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Ireland, 128. The barrier which they believed to separate the rich and the poor in Ireland.
1855. Motley, Dutch Rep., II. ii. (1866), 138. All history shows how feeble are barriers of paper or lambskin … against the torrent of … despotism.
1883. Gilmour, Mongols, xvii. 207. Felt to be barriers to the acceptance of Christianity.
5. attrib., as in barrier fen. Comb., as barrier-like, -net. Also barrier-act (see quot.); barrier-gate, a heavy gate closing the opening through a barrier; barrier-pillar, barrier-reef (see quot.); barrier-treaty, a treaty fixing the frontier of a country, esp. the ‘Treaty of the Barriers’ between Germany, Great Britain, and Holland, signed at Antwerp 15 November 1715.
1868. Chambers, Encycl., I. 712. *Barrier Act … an act of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, 8th January 1697, intended as a barrier against innovations, and a hindrance to hasty legislation.
1855. Singleton, Virgil, I. 215. To cross the *barrier fen.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple (1863), 159. When we had crossed the moat, we found a *barrier-gate locked.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., xx. There is a simplicity in the *barrier-like beach.
1884. D. Watt, in S. Dawson, Handbk. Canada, 279. The *barrier-nets and weirs of pale-faces.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., *Barrier-pillars, pillars of coal, larger than ordinary, left at intervals to prevent too extensive crushing when the ground comes to be robbed.
1805. Flinders, in Phil. Trans., XCVI. 252. Amongst the *barrier reefs.
1853. De la Beche, Geol. Observ., xi. 181. The Great *Barrier Reef, extending off the east coast of Australia for about 1100 miles, with a mean breadth of about 30 miles.
1877. Green, Phys. Geol., iv. § 3. 136. A mighty wall of coral rock, separated from the land by a deep and broad channel, and bounded on the seaward side by a face almost vertical and of enormous height. Such a reef is called a *Barrier reef.
1712. Luttrell, Brief Rel., VI. 719. The *barrier treaty made by the lord Townsend with the states general.
1804. Geo. III., in G. Rose, Diaries (1860), II. 177. He … considered the *Barrier Treaty as … a very effectual one … for preserving the balance of power in Europe.
