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Bar sinister   /bɑr sˈɪnɪstər/   Listen
noun
Bar  n.  
1.
A piece of wood, metal, or other material, long in proportion to its breadth or thickness, used as a lever and for various other purposes, but especially for a hindrance, obstruction, or fastening; as, the bars of a fence or gate; the bar of a door. "Thou shalt make bars of shittim wood."
2.
An indefinite quantity of some substance, so shaped as to be long in proportion to its breadth and thickness; as, a bar of gold or of lead; a bar of soap.
3.
Anything which obstructs, hinders, or prevents; an obstruction; a barrier. "Must I new bars to my own joy create?"
4.
A bank of sand, gravel, or other matter, esp. at the mouth of a river or harbor, obstructing navigation.
5.
Any railing that divides a room, or office, or hall of assembly, in order to reserve a space for those having special privileges; as, the bar of the House of Commons.
6.
(Law)
(a)
The railing that incloses the place which counsel occupy in courts of justice. Hence, the phrase at the bar of the court signifies in open court.
(b)
The place in court where prisoners are stationed for arraignment, trial, or sentence.
(c)
The whole body of lawyers licensed in a court or district; the legal profession.
(d)
A special plea constituting a sufficient answer to plaintiff's action.
7.
Any tribunal; as, the bar of public opinion; the bar of God.
8.
A barrier or counter, over which liquors and food are passed to customers; hence, the portion of the room behind the counter where liquors for sale are kept.
9.
(Her.) An ordinary, like a fess but narrower, occupying only one fifth part of the field.
10.
A broad shaft, or band, or stripe; as, a bar of light; a bar of color.
11.
(Mus.) A vertical line across the staff. Bars divide the staff into spaces which represent measures, and are themselves called measures. Note: A double bar marks the end of a strain or main division of a movement, or of a whole piece of music; in psalmody, it marks the end of a line of poetry. The term bar is very often loosely used for measure, i.e., for such length of music, or of silence, as is included between one bar and the next; as, a passage of eight bars; two bars' rest.
12.
(Far.) pl.
(a)
The space between the tusks and grinders in the upper jaw of a horse, in which the bit is placed.
(b)
The part of the crust of a horse's hoof which is bent inwards towards the frog at the heel on each side, and extends into the center of the sole.
13.
(Mining)
(a)
A drilling or tamping rod.
(b)
A vein or dike crossing a lode.
14.
(Arch.)
(a)
A gatehouse of a castle or fortified town.
(b)
A slender strip of wood which divides and supports the glass of a window; a sash bar.
Bar shoe (Far.), a kind of horseshoe having a bar across the usual opening at the heel, to protect a tender frog from injury.
Bar shot, a double headed shot, consisting of a bar, with a ball or half ball at each end; formerly used for destroying the masts or rigging in naval combat.
Bar sinister (Her.), a term popularly but erroneously used for baton, a mark of illegitimacy. See Baton.
Bar tracery (Arch.), ornamental stonework resembling bars of iron twisted into the forms required.
Blank bar (Law). See Blank.
Case at bar (Law), a case presently before the court; a case under argument.
In bar of, as a sufficient reason against; to prevent.
Matter in bar, or Defence in bar, any matter which is a final defense in an action.
Plea in bar, a plea which goes to bar or defeat the plaintiff's action absolutely and entirely.
Trial at bar (Eng. Law), a trial before all the judges of one the superior courts of Westminster, or before a quorum representing the full court.


adjective
Sinister  adj.  (Accented on the middle syllable by the older poets, as Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden.)
1.
On the left hand, or the side of the left hand; left; opposed to dexter, or right. "Here on his sinister cheek." "My mother's blood Runs on the dexter cheek, and this sinister Bounds in my father's" Note: In heraldy the sinister side of an escutcheon is the side which would be on the left of the bearer of the shield, and opposite the right hand of the beholder.
2.
Unlucky; inauspicious; disastrous; injurious; evil; the left being usually regarded as the unlucky side; as, sinister influences. "All the several ills that visit earth, Brought forth by night, with a sinister birth."
3.
Wrong, as springing from indirection or obliquity; perverse; dishonest; corrupt; as, sinister aims. "Nimble and sinister tricks and shifts." "He scorns to undermine another's interest by any sinister or inferior arts." "He read in their looks... sinister intentions directed particularly toward himself."
4.
Indicative of lurking evil or harm; boding covert danger; as, a sinister countenance.
Bar sinister. (Her.) See under Bar, n.
Sinister aspect (Astrol.), an appearance of two planets happening according to the succession of the signs, as Saturn in Aries, and Mars in the same degree of Gemini.
Sinister base, Sinister chief. See under Escutcheon.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Bar sinister" Quotes from Famous Books



... I am," protested Shelby, with a chuckle. "But before the engraver begins work on the crumb-scraper and the prize pigs let me suggest that you add a detail which has been overlooked. I mean a bar sinister." ...
— The Henchman • Mark Lee Luther
... this ill-assorted pair—a boy who was destined to write his name large on history's page. But such a pedigree! No wonder the youth once wrote to Augusta, his half-sister, expressing a covetous appreciation of her parentage, even with its bar sinister. In passing, it is well to note the sunshine of this love of brother and sister, which continued during life—confidential, earnest, tender, frank. In their best moods they were both lofty souls, and their mutuality was cemented in ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Volume 5 (of 14) • Elbert Hubbard
... Brunhilde (who was exceedingly beautiful) was enticed into the depths of a dark forest by a wily, old German King. Indiscreetly and unsuspectingly she followed him. There clandestinely did he favor her graciously by adding a bar sinister to our knightly escutcheon and a strain of the blood royal to our family. This happened long, long ago in the dark ages or some other dark place—it may have been the Schwarzwald—and it was the curse of the stony field ...
— Tales of Aztlan • George Hartmann
... sworn to obey. No candidate was to be eligible whose birth was not legitimate,[6] a regulation quite ignored when the duke proposed the names of his sons Cornelius and Anthony. For his obedient knights did not refuse to open their ranks to these great bastards of Burgundy, who carried a bar sinister proudly on their escutcheon. So, too, others of Philip's many illegitimate descendants were not rejected when their ...
— Charles the Bold - Last Duke Of Burgundy, 1433-1477 • Ruth Putnam
... the great congress of nations, we will make our appeal, and present the cause of our enslaved and suffering race; and it cannot be that free, enlightened America will not then desire to wipe from her escutcheon that bar sinister which disgraces her among nations, and is as truly a curse to ...
— Uncle Tom's Cabin • Harriet Beecher Stowe


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