| 释义 |
▪ I. barrier, n.|ˈbærɪə(r)|
Forms: 4 barer, 4–5 barrere, 4–6 barrer, 5 barreere, barryȝer, 5–6 barryer, 6 baryer, -ier, -iar, 6– barrier.
[ME. barrere, a. AF. barrere, OF. barrière (= Pr., It. barriera, Sp., med.L. barrera):—late L. barrāria, f. barra bar. Subsequently influenced by continental Fr. spelling.]
1. gen. A fence or material obstruction of any kind erected (or serving) to bar the advance of persons or things, or to prevent access to a place.
a. orig. A palisade or stockade erected to bar the way of an enemy, or defend a gate or passage; an external defence.
c1325E.E. Allit. P. B. 1239 He brek þe bareres as bylyue, & þe burȝ after. c1380Sir Ferumb. 4668 Enfachoun ys to þe ȝeate y-come..And at þe barers he hym sette. c1425Wyntoun Cron. ix. vii. 70 At þe Barreris he faucht sa welle. c1430Lydg. Stor. Thebes iii. (R.) Barbicans and bulwerkes..Barreres, chaines, and ditches. c1440Promp. Parv. 24 Barrere, or barreere (v.r. barryȝer), barraria, barrus. 1490Caxton Eneydos lv. 152 Camilla and Mesapus rode all armed..vnto the barryers. 1523Ld. Berners Froiss. I. xxxviii. 52 He cast hymselfe bytwene the barrers and the gate. 1721Lond. Gaz. No. 5928/6 The outer Barrier of that Place.
fig.1713Young Last Day iii. 124 Who burst the barriers of my peaceful grave?
b. transf. A fortress or fortified town which commands the entrance into a country; a ‘bulwark.’
1600Holland Livy ix. xxxii. 337 b, Which cittie [Sutrium]..was (as a man would say) the verie Barriers [claustra] of all Hetruria. 1709[cf. c]. 1716–8Lady Montague Lett. I. xxvii. 86 Belgrade was formerly the barrier of Hungary.
†c. A fortified frontier; a frontier generally; spec. a name formerly given to a district which commanded the frontier of the Netherlands. Obs.
1709Addison Tatler No. 20 ⁋10 The Dutch are to have for their Barriers, Newport, Berg, St. Vinox..Lille. 1713Lond. Gaz. No. 5180/2 The Frontier-Places of the Dutch-Barrier. 1775Adair Amer. Ind. 463 Without allowing them any militia, even on their barriers. 1835Penny Cycl. III. 502 The Treaty of the Barrier is an instance of a similar species of political adjustment.
d. A fence, or railing, to prevent access to any reserved place.
1570B. Googe Pop. Kingd. iv. (1880) 51 b, With tapers all the people come, and at the barriers stay, Where downe upon their knees they fall, and night and day they pray. Mod. Strong barriers were erected at each end of the street.
e. Applied to the carcer or starting-place in the ancient race-course.
1600Holland Livy viii. xx. 295 The Barriers [carceres], from whence the horses and their chariots are let forth. 1656Cowley Pind. Odes Wks. 1710 I. 203 How swiftly [has he] run, And born the Noble Prize away, Whilst other Youths yet at the Barrier stay? 1880Lewis & Short Lat. Dict., Carcer..the barrier or starting-place in the race-course.
f. In continental towns: The gate at which custom duties are collected.
1825T. Jefferson Autobiog. I. 86 The oppressions of the tithes..the gabelles, the farms and the barriers. [a1847Mrs. Sherwood Lady of Manor I. iv. 96 Versailles is distant about ten miles from the barriere of Paris.]
attrib.1804Edin. Rev. IV. 47 The barrier duties.
g. Coal-mining. ‘A breadth of coal left against an adjoining royalty, for security against casualty arising from water or foul air.’
1851Coal-tr. Terms Northumbld. & Durh. 6 Barriers are left of various thicknesses..varying..from 10 to 50 yards.
2. a. spec. in pl. The palisades enclosing the ground where a tournament, tilting, or other martial contest or exhibition was held; the lists. Also, a low railing or fence running down the centre of the lists on opposite sides of which, and in opposite directions the combatants rode, reaching their lances across.
1581J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 79 To challenge me unto the Barriers. Ibid. 82 One champion is taken from the Barriers. 1817Scott Ivanhoe viii, At length the barriers were opened, and five knights advanced slowly into the area.
†b. Hence, the expression to fight at barriers, and Barriers as the name of a martial exercise in 15th and 16th centuries. Obs. exc. Hist.
1494Fabyan an. 1546 (R.) Chalengours..at tilt, barriers and turney. 1532Act 24 Hen. VIII, xiii, Iustes, tourneis, barriers..or other marcial feates. 1583Golding Calvin on Deut. xii. 67 Like the Game of the Barriers wherein he that winneth today looseth tomorrow. 1608Middleton Fam. Love iii. vi. Wks. II. 159 To see my gallants play at barriers with scourge-sticks. 1616Bullokar, Barriers, a war⁓like exercise of men fighting together with short swords, and within some appointed compasse. 1625Fletcher Noble Gentl. ii. i. 32 You shall not see a mask or Barriers Or tilting or a solemn christning. 1625Bacon Masques, Ess. (Arb.) 540 For Iusts, and Tourneys, and Barriers; The Glories of them, are chiefly in the chariots, wherein the Challengers make their Entry. 1636Randolph in Ann. Dubrensia (1877) 19 What is the Barriers, but a Courtly way Of our more doune-right sport, the Cudgell-play? 1650Bp. Hall Balm of Gilead 104 [He] puts him upon Tiltings, and Barriers, and publique Duels. 1839Keightley Hist. Eng. I. 445 He frequently fought at barriers.
fig.1622Wither in Farr S.P. (1848) 219 These long-gowned warriers, Who play at Westminster, unarm'd, at barriers. a1680Butler Rem. (1759) I. 220 As he, who fought at Barriers with Salmasius Engag'd with nothing but his Stile and Phrases.
3. a. Any natural obstacle which stops or obstructs passage, defends from foes, prevents access, or produces separation; a separating boundary-line.
1703Maundrell Journ. Jerus. (1732) 32 In order to pass this Barrier, we turned up on the left hand. a1744Pope (J.) An ocean flows, Around our realm, a barrier from the foes. 1747in Col. Rec. Penn. V. 153 The Colonies of New Jersey and Pennsylvania will have but a very thin Barrier between them. c1854Stanley Sinai & Pal. iii. (1858) 174 This plain was encompassed with a barrier of heights. 1855Prescott Philip II, I. ii. vi. 207 No mountain barrier lay between France and Flanders.
b. The mass of ice which fringes the Antarctic coast, occas. spec. the Barrier.
1847J. C. Ross Voy. Discovery & Research I. viii. 222 Some of the numerous fragments of the barrier that were about us. 1905R. F. Scott Voy. ‘Discovery’ I. v. 168 The barrier edge, in shadow, looked like a narrowing black ribbon. 1930Discovery Mar. 91/1 Flat fields of snow-ice, strictly speaking neither land-ice nor sea-ice, which, under the name of ‘barriers’ fringe almost the whole circumference of the continent.
c. Physics. The region of high potential energy through which a charged particle must pass on leaving or entering a nucleus; also attrib.
1929Rutherford in Proc. R. Soc. A. CXXIII. 378 The nucleus, supposed spherical in shape, is thus surrounded by a very high potential barrier. 1938R. W. Lawson tr. Hevesy & Paneth's Man. Radioactivity (ed. 2) ix. 98 The nucleus is thus protected by a barrier at an exceedingly high potential. 1955J. A. Wheeler in W. Pauli Niels Bohr 166 Odd nuclei have a higher barrier against fission than corresponding even nuclei. Ibid. 167 The barrier penetration exponent is roughly proportional to the barrier height. 1962Simpson & Richards Junction Transistors ii. 23 Because electrons flowing from n- to p-type material or holes flowing from p- to n-type material require excess energy to mount the potential step, the latter is sometimes called the ‘barrier’.
4. a. Anything immaterial that stops advance hostile or friendly, that defends from attack, prevents intercourse or union, or keeps separate and apart.
1702Pope Thebais 20 Fix, O Muse! the barrier of thy song at Œdipus. 1715Burnet Own Time an. 1685 (R.) The tests stood as a barrier to defend us from popery. 1742Young Nt. Th. iii. 733 A good man, and an angel! these between How thin the barrier? 1776Gibbon Decl. & F. I. 60 Every barrier of the Roman constitution had been levelled by the vast ambition of the dictator. 1797Godwin Enquirer ii. xii. 480 He..erects a barrier between himself and his reader. 1832H. Martineau Ireland 128 The barrier which they believed to separate the rich and the poor in Ireland. 1855Motley Dutch Rep. ii. ii. (1866) 138 All history shows how feeble are barriers of paper or lambskin..against the torrent of..despotism. 1883Gilmour Mongols xvii. 207 Felt to be barriers to the acceptance of Christianity.
b. Freq. with defining word; sound barrier (see sound n.3).
1923Internat. Jrnl. Psycho-analysis Oct. 495 (sub-heading) The Incest Barrier. 1957Ann. Reg. 1956 346 Problems of producing aircraft for still higher speeds, with special attention for the next main obstacle—the heat barrier. 1958F. Kenyon Our Bible & Anc. MSS. (ed. 5) i. 36 They [sc. the Dead Sea Scrolls]..enable us..to ‘penetrate the Massoretic barrier’ by centuries.
5. attrib. and Comb., as in barrier fen, barrier-like, barrier-net. Also barrier-act (see quot.); barrier cream, a protective cream for the skin; barrier-gate, a heavy gate closing the opening through a barrier; barrier layer in Physics, an electrical layer lying between two different metals or between a metal and a semiconductor; also attrib.; barrier-pillar, barrier-reef (see quots.); barrier-treaty, a treaty fixing the frontier of a country, esp. the ‘Treaty of the Barriers’ between Germany, Great Britain, and Holland, signed at Antwerp 15 November 1715.
1868Chambers Encycl. I. 712 *Barrier Act..an act of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, 8th January 1697, intended as a barrier against innovations, and a hindrance to hasty legislation.
1950N.Y. Times 16 Apr. E9/5 A British chemical firm protects workers who handle dyestuffs, chemicals, explosives, oils, acids, alkalis and grease by means of ‘*barrier creams’. The cream is spread over the hands until an invisible ‘glove’ is formed. 1958Sunday Times 20 July 16/5 A reputable barrier cream against sunburn.
1855Singleton Virgil I. 215 To cross the *barrier fen.
1833Marryat P. Simple (1863) 159 When we had crossed the moat, we found a *barrier-gate locked.
1934Physical Rev. XLVI. 1051 A *barrier layer photo-cell..consists of a closed conducting circuit which comprises a semi-conductor forming a link in a metallic circuit. 1944C. E. K. Mees Theory of Photographic Process xvii. 663 Numerous densitometers consist..merely of a light source, a barrier layer cell, and a microammeter. 1948R. C. Walker Photoelectr. Cells in Indust. i. 35 The rectifier type of light sensitive cell, often referred to by alternative names such as barrier layer, blocking layer, or self-generative cells.
1845Darwin Voy. Nat. xx, There is a simplicity in the *barrier-like beach.
1884D. Watt in S. Dawson Handbk. Canada 279 The *barrier-nets and weirs of pale-faces.
1881Raymond Mining Gloss., *Barrier-pillars, pillars of coal, larger than ordinary, left at intervals to prevent too extensive crushing when the ground comes to be robbed.
1805Flinders in Phil. Trans. XCVI. 252 Amongst the *barrier reefs. 1853H. T. De la Beche Geol. Observ. xi. 181 The Great Barrier Reef, extending off the east coast of Australia for about 1100 miles, with a mean breadth of about 30 miles. 1877Green Phys. Geol. iv. §3. 136 A mighty wall of coral rock, separated from the land by a deep and broad channel, and bounded on the seaward side by a face almost vertical and of enormous height. Such a reef is called a Barrier reef.
1712Luttrell Brief Rel. VI. 719 The *barrier treaty made by the lord Townsend with the states general. 1804Geo. III. in G. Rose Diaries (1860) II. 177 He..considered the Barrier Treaty as..a very effectual one..for preserving the balance of power in Europe.
▸ Med. A contraceptive device, such as a condom, cervical cap, etc., used to prevent sperm from reaching and fertilizing an egg, and (esp. in later use) to help prevent the spread of sexually transmitted infections. Freq. attrib., esp. in barrier contraception, barrier contraceptive, barrier method.
1938R. L. Dickinson Control of Conception (ed. 2) vi. 78 Much of the contraceptive value of many products arises from the fact that a physical barrier to the uterine canal is formed. Barrier action is wholly dependent upon physical properties. 1967Preventive Med. & Family Planning 77 (heading) Barrier methods of contraception. 1978Oncol. 35 98/2 The preliminary data also show that 16.1% of the women using barrier contraception..would develop breast cancer, and 3.4% of women using non-barrier techniques..would experience this disease. 1989J. A. B. Collier & J. M. Longmore Oxf. Handbk. Clin. Specialties (ed. 2) i. 60 Spermicides should not be used without barriers as they provide inadequate contraception cover. 1993Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 11 Mar. 17/2 A barrier contraceptive for women that also protects them from HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases..is likely soon to be commercially available. 1999Daily Nation (Nairobi) 9 Dec. 23/6 Addressing HIV/Aids prevention issues as part of prevention of unwanted pregnancy with an emphasis on barrier methods.
▪ II. barrier, v.|ˈbærɪə(r)|
[f. prec. n.]
To close or shut with a barrier. Commonly with off, in.
1776C. Lee in Sparks Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853) I. 153, I shall barrier the principal streets. 1869Daily News 2 July, A space was barriered off by ropes. 1879F. Malleson in Lett. Clergy 51 The mountain tarn barriered in by its stupendous crags. |