unbar, v.
[un-2 3 and 7.]
a. trans. To remove the bar from (a door or gate, etc.); to unfasten, undo. Also absol.
| 13.. Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 2070 The brygge was brayde doun, & þe brode gatez Vnbarred, & born open. 1433 Lydg. St. Edmund iii. 1201 A-nother [thief] besy..To vnpyke lokys, a-nother to vnbarre. c 1450 Mirk's Festial 42 Thomas ȝede to þe dyr, and vnbarret þe dyrre. c 1530 Ld. Berners Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814) 81 He vnbarred helmes, and claue asounder sheldes. 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. xi. 17 He behight Those gates to be vnbar'd, and forth he went. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 995 The Turkes..vncouered and vnbarred their artillerie against the assailants. c 1620 Fletcher & Massinger Trag. Barnavelt v. iii, Who Unbard the Havens that the floating Merchant Might clap his lynnen wings up to the windes. 1700 Dryden Ovid's Met., Ajax xiii. 573 Sure I may..Enter the Town, I then unbarr'd the Gates, When I remov'd their tutelary Fates. 1752 Johnson Rambler No. 190 ¶7 The servant immediately confessed that he unbarred the door. 1815 Scott Guy M. xlv, The house-door was next unbarred, unlocked, and unchained. 1859 Dickens Haunted House iv, With soothing words the sister bade her wait, Until she brought the key to unbar the gate. |
b. In fig. context.
| 1601 Weever Mirr. Mart. C iij b, Looke when the sun..doth rise, Soone as the morne vnbarres her christall gate. 1611 Shakes. Cymb. v. iv. 8 Th' sure Physitian, Death, who is the key T' vnbarre these Lockes. 1667 Milton P.L. vi. 4 Till Morn..with rosie hand Unbarr'd the gates of Light. 1725 Pope Odyss. iv. 412 The morn..Unbarr'd the portal of the roseate East. 1746 Hervey Medit. (1818) 87 The returning hours have unbarred the gates of light. 1855 Brewster Newton II. xvii. 133 That intellectual strength which had unbarred the strongholds of the universe. 1867 Ruskin Time & Tide iv. §17 You practical English!—will you ever unbar the shutters of your brains? 1878 Seeley Stein III. 565 There is nothing he likes better than unbarring restrictions, throwing open closed doors. |
c. intr. To undergo unbarring.
| 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1811) IV. 396, I heard her lady's door, with hasty violence unbar, unbolt, unlock, and open. |
Hence unˈbarring vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1611 Florio, Sbaraglio, rout, vnbarring, scattring. 1829 Scott Anne of G. xix, They heard the noise of the unbolting and unbarring of the gates of the inn. 1834 Marryat P. Simple xix, The unbarring of the prison doors. 1857 Dickens Dorrit i. xvi, The possibility of her father's release from prison by the unbarring hand of death. |