unbar

Claudius has made himself a monarch again, standing at the head of a shrieking horde of desperate peasantry who believe he can unbar the door to that heavenly place.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 11, 2025

The turnkey on duty that night went with the carriage to unbar the outer gate for it to pass.

From Tried for Her Life A Sequel to "Cruel As the Grave" by Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevitte Southworth

Still he began to unbar, though grudgingly, and in half a minute we had the door loose.

From The Red Cockade by Stanley John Weyman

Uncle Pullet had seen the party from the window, and made haste to unbar and unchain the front door.

From Tom and Maggie Tulliver by George Eliot

From amid these heterogeneous articles he reached down a great key and slipping it into his pocket, proceeded to furtively unbar, unlock and let himself out into the young morning.

From Our Admirable Betty A Romance by Jeffery Farnol

The book’s final moments are breathless, if suspiciously flimsy—it isn’t until the very last sentence that Monk unbars “the great gate” and is freed.

From Slate ● Mar. 22, 2017

Will the sun forget to streak Eastern skies with amber ray, When the dusky shades to break He unbars the gates of day?

From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall

At any hour of the day—I won't speak positively about the night—women may be seen at the unbars filling large earthenware jugs, coming and going, going and coming.

From Around the World on a Bicycle - Volume II From Teheran To Yokohama by Thomas Stevens

See, the Muse unbars the gate; Hark, the monkeys, how they prate!

From Ireland in the Days of Dean Swift Irish Tracts, 1720 to 1734 by J. Bowles (John Bowles) Daly

Soon as to Ilion's topmost tower they come, And awful reach the high Palladian dome, Antenor's consort, fair Theano, waits As Pallas' priestess, and unbars the gates.

From The Iliad by Alexander Pope

As a result, its classification was changed from unbarred spiral galaxy to barred spiral galaxy.

From Salon ● Apr. 23, 2022

Eventually, we decided that my father would not recover, and so, instead of continuing to try to stave off death, we unbarred the door and began to wait.

From The New Yorker ● Feb. 5, 2017

In both barred and unbarred spiral galaxies, we observe a range of different shapes.

From Textbooks ● Oct. 13, 2016

Handel’s vocal writing can be fiercely demanding, nowhere more so than in the Angel’s opening aria, “Be unbarred, ye gates of Avernus,” in which Liv Redpath, a soprano, displayed lovely tone and fine agility.

From New York Times ● Dec. 9, 2014

They were so wrought and poised upon their huge hinges, posts of steel driven into the living stone, that when unbarred they could be moved with a light thrust of the arms, noiselessly.

From "The Two Towers" by J. R. R. Tolkien

Knees, shoulders, elbows, buttocks and teeth collide with one another, fleetingly unbarring a glimpse into deeper space before they slide closed again.

From Slate ● Sep. 25, 2011

And as soon as their parents had gone to sleep, he got up, put on his coat, and, unbarring the back door, went out.

From My Book of Favorite Fairy Tales by Jennie Harbour

Leaving their horses there, they came round to the front on foot, where Sara met them, unbarring the door herself, an apparition of innocence against the background of that gloomy hall.

From My Lords of Strogue Vol. III, (of III) A Chronicle of Ireland, from the Convention to the Union by Lewis Wingfield

Some consciousness of human presence—strange element of the divine, which, like a sudden light on sleeping eyes can pass the gates of slumber without unbarring them—was calling the mind back to its vacated chambers.

From The Bail Jumper by Robert J. C. Stead

There was a noise and clamour downstairs beneath them—the sound of the slow unbarring of bolts, and angry voices without.

From Six Women by Victoria Cross