eyebarn.
/ˈʌɪbɑː/, U.S. /ˈaɪˌbɑr/ 1. Engineering. Cf. eye n.1 9.† a. A bar that passes through a small opening. Obsolete. rare.
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1853 U.S. Patent 9,601 1/1 In the upper part of the frame F a bar N which I call the eye-bar passes through the front bar of the frame.
b. A metal bar with two enlarged ends each containing a hole; spec. a heavy one used to hold a bolt, the end of a cable, or a similar bar, typically in a suspension bridge. Cf. eyebolt n.
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1880 W. H. Burr Course Stresses Bridge & Roof Trusses §73. 315 An ‘eye-bar’ or ‘link’ is a tension member of a pin-connection bridge, fitted at each end with an eye for the insertion of a pin.
1908 E. S. Andrews Theory & Design of Struct. xvii. 508 Pin-jointed eye bars are not much used in this country for bridge work, and for roof work they are going out of use.
1943 Triumphs of Engin. 116/1 These cables are spun from single wires laid across and across until they form a strand of some hundreds, looped at their ends round horseshoe-shaped blocks held by eyebars embedded in the masonry.
2003 D. Cadbury Seven Wonders Industr. World (2004) iii. 133 From the centre of each plate, eighteen eye-bars twelve feet long acted as the first link in a long double chain of eye-bars that made its way in a curve to the top and the front of the anchorage.
2. Zoology. A band of contrasting colour close to an animal's eye, an eyestripe; (in later use) spec. a vertical marking of this kind in a cichlid or other fish.
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1877 H. D. Minot Land-birds & Game-birds New Eng. 438 (note) Forehead and eye-bars black.
1923 A. H. Cordier Birds lxxvii. 205 In this species [sc. Bell's vireo] there are no eye-bars or white circles around the eyes.
1976 Animal Behaviour 24 461/1 (caption) Black pattern marking head of territorial male..showing only the black eye-bar.
1992 New Scientist 6 June 15/1 Territorial males have flashy eyebars and reddish-orange patches on their flanks.
2012 Jrnl. Chem. Neuroanat. 44 87/2 Subordinate males were identified by absence of a territory..and lack of bright body coloration and eye bar.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2014; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1853