barriers

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of barrier.

   Police set up steel barriers along the parade route to keep spectators back.

   Language and cost remain the biggest barriers to getting medical care abroad.

   Note

   The ordinary plural, formed with a plain -s, and it carries every meaning the singular has: steel barriers along a parade route, barriers of language or cost, and the specialist barriers of syntax and of the body. The figurative kind usually takes to before what is blocked (barriers to care, barriers to entry). The same spelling also serves as the verb form, so in "the council barriers the square" it is a verb, not a noun.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present indicative of barrier.

   The council barriers off the main square whenever a large protest is expected.

   Each evening the crew barriers off the loading area with orange cones.

   Note

   Here the noun has been turned into a transitive verb, so it always needs an object: the thing that gets blocked off, such as the square or the runway. Because the -s form looks exactly like the plural noun, the sentence around it tells you which one you have. If it follows a singular subject and comes before an object, it is the verb.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2