bar, v.¹ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bar v.¹

[? 17C bar, to take exception to + dicing and two-up jargon bar, to declare a throw void]

1. (also bar out) of actions, to reject unequivocally.

1808		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Peep at the Academy’ Works V (1812) 355: They call thee a fine China jar: But this I humbly beg to bar; They should have said a pipkin of brown crockery pot.
1835		D. Crockett Col. Crockett’s Tour to North and Down East 104: We may as well dismiss ourselves, and go home; shut up shop, bar out the schoolmaster, and save the expense of a Congress.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 110/2: Bar that, cheese it, cut it, leave off.
1859		‘Scene in a London Flash-Panny’ Matsell Vocabulum 100: ‘Bar that toss, Jim,’ said Bell, ‘for you’re as fly at the pictures, as the devil at lying.’.
1886		Sporting Times 22 May 1/3: He seized her and said, ‘I bar squeaking’. ‘Bar the door you fool’, was the prompt reply.
1899		‘Pot’ & ‘Swears’ Scarlet City 180: Bar chaff. [...] What do they do?
1947		S. Lewis Kingsblood Royal (2001) 108: He would not jimcrow it and bar out Negro customers.
1977		(con. 1941) R. Beilby Gunner 299: ‘Barred,’ shouted the ringie [...] ‘Bar that spin! All bets stand!’.
1993		8Ball & MJG ‘Miggaz Like Us’ 🎵 Let these bastards know that we don’t bar no fuckin’ blood stains.

2. of people, to dislike intensely.

1904		Wodehouse Gold Bat [ebook] ‘Mill is awfully barred in Seymour’s [...] Anybody might have ragged his study’.
1909		Wodehouse Mike [ebook] ‘There’s nothing that gets a chap so barred here as side’.
1919		Aussie (France) 12 Mar. 1/2: You can Promenade avec the Gal and her Father if you like, but We bar Petit Garcons and Filles.

3. (US black) to back down, e.g. from a fight.

1998

Fat Pat ‘Why You Peepin Me’ 🎵 You know we don’t bar.

bar that!

stop! be quiet!

1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict. 4: Bar that – cheese it, stow it, don’t mention it.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open [as cit. 1835].

bar the bubble (v.) [SE bar, except + play on bubble n.¹ (2)]

to make an exception against the general rule.

c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: To bar the bubble. that is to except agreement [of] that General Rule, that he who lays the Odds must always be adjudged the loser. This is particularly restricted to bets laid for Drink.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn) n.p.: To Bar the Bubble. To except against the general rule, that he who lays the odds must always be adjudged the loser: this is restricted to betts laid for liquor.
1801		‘Modern Dict.’ in Sporting Mag. May XVIII 98/2: [as cit. 1788].
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 18: ‘To bar the bubble,’ — to restrict the decision of a bet to the rules of common sense.