bars

Noun

bar (countable and uncountable, plural bars)

1. A solid, more or less rigid object of metal or wood with a uniform cross-section smaller than its length.
   • The window was protected by steel bars.
2. A solid metal object with uniform (round, square, hexagonal, octagonal or rectangular) cross-section; in the US its smallest dimension is ¹⁄₄ inch or greater, a piece of thinner material being called a strip.
   • Ancient Sparta used iron bars instead of handy coins in more valuable alloy, to physically discourage the use of money.
3. A cuboid piece of any solid commodity.
   • bar of chocolate
4. A broad shaft, band, or stripe.
   • a bar of light
5. A long, narrow drawn or printed rectangle, cuboid or cylinder, especially as used in a bar code or a bar chart.
6. Any of various lines used as punctuation or diacritics, such as the pipe ⟨|⟩, fraction bar (as in 12), and strikethrough (as in Ⱥ), formerly (obsolete) including oblique marks such as the slash.

See all 54 meanings of bar

Noun

parallel bars pl (plural only)

1. (plural, plural-only) A set of apparatus consisting of two horizontal bars at a small distance apart, upon which acts of swinging and holding and jumping and dips are performed.

   Synonyms:

   dip bars

2. (plural, plural-only) A gymnastics event using the parallel bars.