barred

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of bar.

   The committee barred him from competing after the violation.

   Fallen trees barred the road for several days.

   Note

   A regular verb with one spelling quirk: the final r doubles before the ending, so bar becomes barred. One form serves as both the simple past (he barred the door at evening) and the participle (the road was barred). With a person as its object it usually means "prohibit" and takes from, as in barred him from competing. The participle settles into the "prevented" adjective.

2. 2
   adjective

   Prevented from entry or action, whether by a physical obstacle or by rules and conditions.

   Barred from the courtroom, the reporters waited in the hallway.

   The trail was barred by a wide river with no bridge in sight.

   Similarbanned, excluded, blocked

3. 3
   adjective

   Marked with stripes or bands, as though crossed by a series of bars.

   The barred feathers on its chest distinguish the owl from its relatives.

   A barred pattern ran the length of the snake's body.

   Similarstriped, banded, stripy

   Note

   Two pictures share this adjective: things fitted with real bars, and things marked as though they were. Margery Allingham's The China Governess (1963) has lunette windows "heavily barred", meaning crossed by actual bars. A bird's plumage or a snake's skin is barred only by its pattern. The word is gradable, so heavily barred and more barred are natural. Context tells you whether the bars are iron or only color.

4. 4
   adjectiveslang

   Intoxicated from taking the drug Xanax.

   Half the crowd seemed barred, slurring through conversations they wouldn't remember.

   He showed up barred and could barely keep his eyes open.

   Similarhigh

   Oppositesober

   Note

   Drug slang, best kept to speech or to dialogue in fiction. It is usually used after a verb, as in showed up barred or seemed barred, and is rarely placed before a noun. Context separates it from the "prevented" meaning. Someone barred from the party was kept out; someone barred at the party was intoxicated.

5. 5
   adjective

   Marking where words begin and end with thick dividing lines rather than blocked-out black squares, as in a crossword grid.

   The puzzle editor preferred a barred grid for its cleaner appearance.

   A barred design let the setter fit several long answers into the diagram.

   Note

   Crossword setters sort grids into two kinds, blocked and barred, and the words work as a pair. A barred grid separates answers with heavy lines between cells, so every square holds a letter. The Chambers Crossword Dictionary notes that a blocked grid usually leaves more letters unchecked than a barred one. The usual phrasings are a barred grid and a barred crossword, as in Denise Sutherland's Solving Cryptic Crosswords For Dummies (2012).

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