What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Bar vs Shelf - What's the difference?

bar | shelf | Synonyms |

Bar is a synonym of shelf.


As nouns the difference between bar and shelf

is that bar is bar while shelf is a flat, rigid, rectangular structure, fixed at right angles to a wall, and used to support, store or display objects.

bar

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) . May well have been reinforced by existing Old English term from the same root.

Noun

  • A solid, more or less rigid object of metal or wood with a uniform cross-section smaller than its length.
  • The window was protected by steel bars .
  • (countable, uncountable, metallurgy) A solid metal object with uniform (round, square, hexagonal, octagonal or rectangular) cross-section; in the US its smallest dimension is .25 inch or greater, a piece of thinner material being called a strip.
  • Ancient Sparta used iron bars instead of handy coins in more valuable alloy, to physically discourage the use of money.
    We are expecting a carload of bar tomorrow.
  • A cuboid piece of any solid commodity.
  • bar of chocolate
    bar of soap
  • A broad shaft, or band, or stripe.
  • a bar''' of light; a '''bar of colour
  • A long, narrow drawn or printed rectangle, cuboid or cylinder, especially as used in a bar code or a bar chart.
  • A diacritical mark that consists of a line drawn through a grapheme. (For example, turning A' into ' ? .)
  • A business licensed to sell alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises, or the premises themselves; public house.
  • The street was lined with all-night bars .
  • The counter of such a premises.
  • Step up to the bar and order a drink.
  • A counter, or simply a cabinet, from which alcoholic drinks are served in a private house or a hotel room.
  • In combinations such as coffee bar, juice bar, etc., a premises or counter serving non-alcoholic drinks.
  • An official order or pronouncement that prohibits some activity.
  • The club has lifted its bar on women members.
  • Anything that obstructs, hinders, or prevents; an obstruction; a barrier.
  • * Dryden
  • Must I new bars to my own joy create?
  • (computing, whimsical, derived from fubar) A metasyntactic variable representing an unspecified entity, often the second in a series, following foo.
  • Suppose we have two objects, foo and bar .
  • (UK, legal) The railing surrounding the part of a courtroom in which the judges, lawyers, defendants and witnesses stay
  • The Bar exam, the legal licensing exam.
  • He's studying hard to pass the Bar this time; he's failed it twice before.
  • (music) A vertical line across a musical staff dividing written music into sections, typically of equal durational value.
  • (music) One of those musical sections.
  • (sports) A horizontal pole that must be crossed in high jump and pole vault
  • (soccer) The crossbar
  • * {{quote-news, year=2010
  • , date=December 29 , author=Chris Whyatt , title=Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=Composed play then saw Sam Ricketts nutmeg Ashley Cole before Taylor whipped a fine curling effort over Petr Cech's bar .}}
  • (backgammon) The central divider between the inner and outer table of a backgammon board, where stones are placed if they are hit.
  • An addition to a military medal, on account of a subsequent act
  • A linear shoaling landform feature within a body of water.
  • (nautical, hydrology) A ridge or succession of ridges of sand or other substance, especially a formation extending across the mouth of a river or harbor or off a beach, and which may obstruct navigation. (FM 55-501).
  • (heraldiccharge) One of the ordinaries in heraldry; a fess.
  • An informal unit of measure of signal strength for a wireless device such as a cell phone.
  • There were no bars so I didn't get your text.
  • A city gate, in some British place names.
  • Potter's Bar
  • (mining) A drilling or tamping rod.
  • (mining) A vein or dike crossing a lode.
  • (architecture) A gatehouse of a castle or fortified town.
  • (farriery) The part of the crust of a horse's hoof which is bent inwards towards the frog at the heel on each side, and extends into the centre of the sole.
  • (farriery, in the plural) The space between the tusks and grinders in the upper jaw of a horse, in which the bit is placed.
  • Synonyms
    * (business licensed to sell intoxicating beverages) barroom, ginshop, pub (British ), public house, tavern * (official order prohibiting some activity) ban, prohibition * measure * See also
    Derived terms
    * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * barring * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * disbar, disbarment * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

    See also

    * (heraldry)

    Verb

    (barr)
  • To obstruct the passage of (someone or something).
  • * {{quote-book, passage="One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I'm after a prize to-night,
  • But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light;
    Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day,
    Then look for me by moonlight,
    Watch for me by moonlight,
    I'll come to thee by moonlight, though Hell should bar the way."
    , title= , author=Alfred Noyes , year=1906 }}
    Our way was barred by a huge rockfall.
  • To prohibit.
  • I couldn't get into the nightclub because I had been barred .
  • To lock or bolt with a bar.
  • bar the door
  • to imprint or paint with bars, to stripe
  • * 1899 ,
  • I lived in a hut in the yard, but to be out of the chaos I would sometimes get into the accountant’s office. It was built of horizontal planks, and so badly put together that, as he bent over his high desk, he was barred from neck to heels with narrow strips of sunlight.
    Synonyms
    * (obstruct) block, hinder, obstruct * (prohibit) ban, interdict, prohibit * (lock or bolt with a bar) * See also
    Derived terms
    * *

    Preposition

    (English prepositions)
  • Except, with the exception of.
  • He invited everyone to his wedding bar his ex-wife.
  • (horse racing)
  • Leg At Each Corner is at 3/1, Lost My Shirt 5/1, and it's 10/1 bar .
    Synonyms
    * apart from, barring, except, except for, excluding, other than, save
    Derived terms
    * *

    References

    *

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) , coined circa 1900.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A non-SI unit of pressure equal to 100,000 pascals, approximately equal to atmospheric pressure at sea level.
  • Derived terms
    * * *

    Anagrams

    *

    shelf

    English

    (wikipedia shelf)

    Noun

    (shelves)
  • A flat, rigid, rectangular structure, fixed at right angles to a wall, and used to support, store or display objects.
  • * 2012 October 31, David M. Halbfinger, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/nyregion/new-jersey-continues-to-cope-with-hurricane-sandy.html?hp]," New York Times (retrieved 31 October 2012):
  • Localities across New Jersey imposed curfews to prevent looting. In Monmouth, Ocean and other counties, people waited for hours for gasoline at the few stations that had electricity. Supermarket shelves were stripped bare.
  • The capacity of such an object; as, a shelf of videos.
  • A projecting ledge that resembles such an object.
  • A reef, shoal or sandbar.
  • Synonyms

    * (capacity) shelfful

    Derived terms

    * bookshelf * continental shelf * off the shelf * on the shelf * shelfful * shelvy * shelf life