Unbar

v. [UN-² 3 and 7.] a. trans. To remove the bar from (a door or gate, etc.); to unfasten, undo. Also absol.

13[?].  Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 2070. The brygge was brayde doun, & þe brode gatez Vnbarred, & born open.

1433.  Lydg., St. Edmund, III. 1201. A-nother [thief] besy … To vnpyke lokys, a-nother to vnbarre.

c. 1450.  Mirk’s Festial, 42. Thomas ȝede to þe dyr, and vnbarret þe dyrre.

c. 1530.  Ld. Berners, Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814), 81. He vnbarred helmes, and claue asounder sheldes.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., II. xi. 17. He behight Those gates to be vnbar’d, and forth he went.

1603.  Knolles, Hist. Turks (1621), 995. The Turkes … vncouered and vnbarred their artillerie against the assailants.

c. 1620.  Fletcher & Massinger, Trag. Barnavelt, V. iii. Who Unbard the Havens that the floating Merchant Might clap his lynnen wings up to the windes.

1700.  Dryden, Ovid’s Met., Ajax, XIII. 573. Sure I may … Enter the Town, I then unbarr’d the Gates, When I remov’d their tutelary Fates.

1752.  Johnson, Rambler, No. 190, ¶ 7. The servant immediately confessed that he unbarred the door.

1815.  Scott, Guy M., xlv. The house-door was next unbarred, unlocked, and unchained.

1859.  Dickens, Haunted House, iv. With soothing words the sister bade her wait, Until she brought the key to unbar the gate.

  b.  In fig. context.

1601.  Weever, Mirr. Mart., C iij b. Looke when the sun … doth rise, Soone as the morne vnbarres her christall gate.

1611.  Shaks., Cymb., V. iv. 8. Th’ sure Physitian, Death, who is the key T’ vnbarre these Lockes.

1667.  Milton, P. L., VI. 4. Till Morn … with rosie hand Unbarr’d the gates of Light.

1725.  Pope, Odyss., IV. 412. The morn … Unbarr’d the portal of the roseate East.

1746.  Hervey, Medit. (1818), 87. The returning hours have unbarred the gates of light.

1855.  Brewster, Newton, II. xvii. 133. That intellectual strength which had unbarred the strongholds of the universe.

1867.  Ruskin, Time & Tide, iv. § 17. You practical English!—will you ever unbar the shutters of your brains?

1878.  Seeley, Stein, III. 565. There is nothing he likes better than unbarring restrictions, throwing open closed doors.

  c.  intr. To undergo unbarring.

1748.  Richardson, Clarissa (1811), IV. 396. I heard her lady’s door, with hasty violence unbar, unbolt, unlock, and open.

  Hence Unbarring vbl. sb. and ppl. a.

1611.  Florio, Sbaraglio, rout, vnbarring, scattring.

1829.  Scott, Anne of G., xix. They heard the noise of the unbolting and unbarring of the gates of the inn.

1834.  Marryat, P. Simple, xix. The unbarring of the prison doors.

1857.  Dickens, Dorrit, I. xvi. The possibility of her father’s release from prison by the unbarring hand of death.