▪ I. ajar, adv.1
(əˈdʒɑː(r))
Forms: 6 on char, ? a char.
[f. a prep.1 + char, OE. cyrr, cerr a turn. The 18th c. at jar was on false analogy; see next.]
Of a door or window: On the turn, slightly opened.
| [c 1400 Beryn 355 The doer shall stond char vp; put it from yew sofft.] a 1513 Douglas King Hart (1874) I. 98 The dure on char it stude. 1513 ― æneis vii. Prol. 129 Ane schot wyndo vnschet a lytill on char. 1708 Swift Abol. Chr. Wks. 1755 II. i. 90 Opening a few wickets, and leaving them at jar. 1786 Beckford Vathek (1868) 92 With a large door in it standing ajar. 1815 Scott Ld. of Isles v. iii, But the dim lattice is ajar. |
▪ II. ajar, adv.2, prop. phr.
(əˈdʒɑː(r))
[a prep.1 of state + jar n. discord, quarrel; or for earlier at jar.]
In a jarring state, out of harmony, at odds.
| 1553–87 Foxe A. & M. (1843) VIII. 170 You are at jar amongst yourselves. 1860 Hawthorne Marble Farm (1879) I. xiii. 129 Any accident..that puts an individual ajar with the world. 1877 H. Martineau Autobiog. I. 83 My temper was so thoroughly ajar. |