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.   --Ex. xxvi. 26.
 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?   --Dryden.
 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.


 Blank a.
 1. Of a white or pale color; without color.
 To the blank moon
 Her office they prescribed.   --Milton.
 2. Free from writing, printing, or marks; having an empty space to be filled in with some special writing; -- said of checks, official documents, etc.; as, blank paper; a blank check; a blank ballot.
 3. Utterly confounded or discomfited.
    Adam . . . astonied stood, and blank.   --Milton.
 4. Empty; void; without result; fruitless; as, a blank space; a blank day.
 5. Lacking characteristics which give variety; as, a blank desert; a blank wall; destitute of interests, affections, hopes, etc.; as, to live a blank existence; destitute of sensations; as, blank unconsciousness.
 6. Lacking animation and intelligence, or their associated characteristics, as expression of face, look, etc.; expressionless; vacant. “Blank and horror-stricken faces.”
    The blank . . . glance of a half returned consciousness.   --G. Eliot.
 7. Absolute; downright; unmixed; as, blank terror.
 Blank bar Law, a plea put in to oblige the plaintiff in an action of trespass to assign the certain place where the trespass was committed; -- called also common bar.
 Blank cartridge, a cartridge containing no ball.
 Blank deed. See Deed.
 Blank door, or  Blank window Arch., a depression in a wall of the size of a door or window, either for symmetrical effect, or for the more convenient insertion of a door or window at a future time, should it be needed.
 Blank indorsement Law, an indorsement which omits the name of the person in whose favor it is made; it is usually made by simply writing the name of the indorser on the back of the bill.
 Blank line Print., a vacant space of the breadth of a line, on a printed page; a line of quadrats.
 Blank tire Mech., a tire without a flange.
 Blank tooling. See Blind tooling, under Blind.
 Blank verse. See under Verse.
 Blank wall, a wall in which there is no opening; a dead wall.


 Com·mon a. [Compar. Commoner superl. Commonest.]
 1. Belonging or relating equally, or similarly, to more than one; as, you and I have a common interest in the property.
    Though life and sense be common to men and brutes.   --Sir M. Hale.
 2. Belonging to or shared by, affecting or serving, all the members of a class, considered together; general; public; as, properties common to all plants; the common schools; the Book of Common Prayer.
    Such actions as the common good requireth.   --Hooker.
    The common enemy of man.   --Shak.
 3. Often met with; usual; frequent; customary.
    Grief more than common grief.   --Shak.
 4. Not distinguished or exceptional; inconspicuous; ordinary; plebeian; -- often in a depreciatory sense.
    The honest, heart-felt enjoyment of common life.   --W. Irving.
 This fact was infamous
 And ill beseeming any common man,
 Much more a knight, a captain and a leader.   --Shak.
    Above the vulgar flight of common souls.   --A. Murphy.
 5. Profane; polluted. [Obs.]
    What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.   --Acts x. 15.
 6. Given to habits of lewdness; prostitute.
    A dame who herself was common.   --L'Estrange.
 Common bar Law Same as Blank bar, under Blank.
 Common barrator Law, one who makes a business of instigating litigation.
 Common Bench, a name sometimes given to the English Court of Common Pleas.
 Common brawler Law, one addicted to public brawling and quarreling. See Brawler.
 Common carrier Law, one who undertakes the office of carrying (goods or persons) for hire. Such a carrier is bound to carry in all cases when he has accommodation, and when his fixed price is tendered, and he is liable for all losses and injuries to the goods, except those which happen in consequence of the act of God, or of the enemies of the country, or of the owner of the property himself.
 Common chord Mus., a chord consisting of the fundamental tone, with its third and fifth.
 Common council, the representative (legislative) body, or the lower branch of the representative body, of a city or other municipal corporation.
 Common crier, the crier of a town or city.
 Common divisor Math., a number or quantity that divides two or more numbers or quantities without a remainder; a common measure.
 Common gender Gram., the gender comprising words that may be of either the masculine or the feminine gender.
 Common law, a system of jurisprudence developing under the guidance of the courts so as to apply a consistent and reasonable rule to each litigated case. It may be superseded by statute, but unless superseded it controls. --Wharton.
 Note: It is by others defined as the unwritten law (especially of England), the law that receives its binding force from immemorial usage and universal reception, as ascertained and expressed in the judgments of the courts. This term is often used in contradistinction from statute law. Many use it to designate a law common to the whole country. It is also used to designate the whole body of English (or other) law, as distinguished from its subdivisions, local, civil, admiralty, equity, etc. See Law.
 Common lawyer, one versed in common law.
 Common lewdness Law, the habitual performance of lewd acts in public.
 Common multiple Arith. See under Multiple.
 Common noun Gram., the name of any one of a class of objects, as distinguished from a proper noun (the name of a particular person or thing).
 Common nuisance Law, that which is deleterious to the health or comfort or sense of decency of the community at large.
 Common pleas, one of the three superior courts of common law at Westminster, presided over by a chief justice and four puisne judges. Its jurisdiction is confined to civil matters. Courts bearing this title exist in several of the United States, having, however, in some cases, both civil and criminal jurisdiction extending over the whole State. In other States the jurisdiction of the common pleas is limited to a county, and it is sometimes called a county court. Its powers are generally defined by statute.
 Common prayer, the liturgy of the Church of England, or of the Protestant Episcopal church of the United States, which all its clergy are enjoined to use. It is contained in the Book of Common Prayer.
 Common school, a school maintained at the public expense, and open to all.
 Common scold Law, a woman addicted to scolding indiscriminately, in public.
 Common seal, a seal adopted and used by a corporation.
 Common sense. (a) A supposed sense which was held to be the common bond of all the others. [Obs.] --Trench. (b) Sound judgment. See under Sense.
 Common time Mus., that variety of time in which the measure consists of two or of four equal portions.
 In common, equally with another, or with others; owned, shared, or used, in community with others; affecting or affected equally.
 Out of the common, uncommon; extraordinary.
 Tenant in common, one holding real or personal property in common with others, having distinct but undivided interests. See Joint tenant, under Joint.
 To make common cause with, to join or ally one's self with.
 Syn: -- General; public; popular; national; universal; frequent; ordinary; customary; usual; familiar; habitual; vulgar; mean; trite; stale; threadbare; commonplace. See Mutual, Ordinary, General.