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Barrier vs Backstop - What's the difference?

barrier | backstop |

As nouns the difference between barrier and backstop

is that barrier is a structure that bars passage while backstop is a device that prevents railroad cars from rolling off a railroad track.

As a verb backstop is

to serve as backstop for.

barrier

English

(wikipedia barrier)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A structure that bars passage.
  • An obstacle or impediment.
  • * {{quote-magazine, title=Towards the end of poverty
    • , date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838, page=11, magazine=(The Economist) citation , passage=America’s poverty line is $63 a day for a family of four. In the richer parts of the emerging world $4 a day is the poverty barrier . But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 ([…]): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.}}
  • A boundary or limit.

    • Derived terms

    * barrier reef * color barrier * crash barrier * diffusion-barrier * half-barrier * ice barrier * language barrier * racial barrier * sound barrier * tilt barrier * tire barrier * toll barrier

    backstop

    English

    Noun

    (wikipedia backstop) (en noun)
  • A device that prevents railroad cars from rolling off a railroad track.
  • (baseball) A wall behind home plate.
  • A catcher; the position of catcher

    • Verb

    (backstopp)
  • To serve as backstop for.
  • To bolster, support.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2013 , date=March 26 , author=Douglas Busvine and Darya Korsunskaya , title=Russia backstops Cyprus bailout despite anger , work=Reuters citation , page= , passage=Russia signalled on Monday it would backstop the European Union's bailout of Cyprus despite anger that the weekend rescue deal would impose heavy losses on uninsured depositors, many of them Russian.}}