'Barrier' definitions:
Definition of 'barrier'
From: WordNet
noun
A structure or object that impedes free movement
noun
Any condition that makes it difficult to make progress or to achieve an objective; "intolerance is a barrier to understanding" [syn: barrier, roadblock]
noun
Anything serving to maintain separation by obstructing vision or access
Definition of 'Barrier'
From: 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]
Synonyms of 'barrier'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- 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