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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Barrier \Bar"ri*er\, noun [OE. barrere, barere, F. barri['e]re, fr. barre bar. See {Bar}, noun]
1. (Fort.) A carpentry obstruction, stockade, or other obstacle made in a passage in order to stop an enemy.
2. A fortress or fortified town, on the frontier of a country, commanding an avenue of approach.
3. pl. A fence or railing to mark the limits of a place, or to keep back a crowd.
No sooner were the barriers opened, than he paced into the lists. --Sir W. Scott.
4. Any obstruction; anything which hinders approach or attack. ''Constitutional barriers.'' --Hopkinson.
5. Any limit or boundary; a line of separation.
'Twixt that [instinct] and reason, what a nice barrier! --Pope.
{Barrier gate}, a heavy gate to close the opening through a barrier.
{Barrier reef}, a form of coral reef which runs in the general direction of the shore, and incloses a lagoon channel more or less extensive.
{To fight at barriers}, to fight with a barrier between, as a martial exercise. [Obs.] ||
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
barrier
noun
1: a structure or object that impedes free movement
2: any condition that makes it difficult to make progress or to achieve an objective; "intolerance is a barrier to understanding" [syn: {roadblock}]
3: anything serving to maintain separation by obstructing vision or access
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
161 Moby Thesaurus words for "barrier": abatis, advanced work, arch dam, backstop, balistraria, balustrade, bamboo curtain, bank, banquette, bar, barbed-wire entanglement, barbican, barrage, barricade, bartizan, bastion, battlement, bear-trap dam, beaver dam, blank wall, blind alley, blind gut, block, blockade, blockage, bolt, boom, bottleneck, boundary, brattice, breakwater, breastwork, brick wall, buffer, buffer state, bulkhead, bulwark, bumper, casemate, cecum, cheval-de-frise, choking, choking off, circumvallation, clog, cloison, cofferdam, collision mat, congestion, constipation, contravallation, costiveness, counterscarp, cul-de-sac, curtain, cushion, dam, dead end, defense, demibastion, diaphragm, dike, dissepiment, ditch, dividing line, dividing wall, division, drawbridge, earthwork, embankment, embolism, embolus, enclosure, entanglement, escarp, escarpment, fence, fender, fieldwork, fortalice, fortification, frontier, gate, glacis, gorge, gravity dam, groin, ha-ha, hindrance, hydraulic-fill dam, impasse, impediment, infarct, infarction, interseptum, iron curtain, jam, jetty, leaping weir, levee, limit, lock, logjam, loophole, lunette, machicolation, mantelet, mat, merlon, midriff, midsection, milldam, moat, mole, mound, obstacle, obstipation, obstruction, outwork, pad, padlock, palisade, panel, parados, parapet, paries, partition, party wall, portcullis, postern gate, property line, rail, railing, rampart, ravelin, redan, redoubt, roadblock, rock-fill dam, sally port, scarp, sconce, sealing off, seawall, separation, septulum, septum, shock pad, shutter dam, stockade, stone wall, stop, stoppage, strangulation, tenaille, vallation, vallum, wall, weir, wicket dam, work
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