bar vs catch

bar

verb
  • To obstruct the passage of (someone or something). 

  • To imprint or paint with bars, to stripe. 

  • To prohibit. 

  • To lock or bolt with a bar. 

noun
  • An establishment offering cosmetic services. 

  • Premises or a counter serving any type of beverage. 

  • A solid metal object with uniform (round, square, hexagonal, octagonal or rectangular) cross-section; in the US its smallest dimension is ¹⁄₄ inch or greater, a piece of thinner material being called a strip. 

  • The space between the tusks and grinders in the upper jaw of a horse, in which the bit is placed. 

  • 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). 

  • The central divider between the inner and outer table of a backgammon board, where stones are placed if they are hit. 

  • A broad shaft, band, or stripe. 

  • The bar exam, the legal licensing exam. 

  • A drilling or tamping rod. 

  • A counter, or simply a cabinet, from which alcoholic drinks are served in a private house or a hotel room. 

  • An addition to a military medal, on account of a subsequent act. 

  • A dividing line (physical or notional) in the chamber of a legislature beyond which only members and officials may pass. 

  • A solid, more or less rigid object of metal or wood with a uniform cross-section smaller than its length. 

  • A long, narrow drawn or printed rectangle, cuboid or cylinder, especially as used in a bar code or a bar chart. 

  • A similar sign indicating that the charge on a particle is the negative of its usual value (and that consequently the particle is in fact an antiparticle). 

  • A non-SI unit of pressure equal to 100,000 pascals, approximately equal to atmospheric pressure at sea level. 

  • The counter of such premises. 

  • The sign indicating that the characteristic of a logarithm is negative, conventionally placed above the digit(s) to show that it applies to the characteristic only and not to the mantissa. 

  • A metasyntactic variable representing an unspecified entity, often the second in a series, following foo. 

  • The crossbar. 

  • Any level of achievement regarded as a challenge to be overcome. 

  • A vertical line across a musical staff dividing written music into sections, typically of equal durational value. 

  • A linear shoaling landform feature within a body of water. 

  • An establishment where alcohol and sometimes other refreshments are served. 

  • Collectively, lawyers or the legal profession; specifically applied to barristers in some countries, but including all lawyers in others. 

  • One of the ordinaries in heraldry; a diminutive of a fess. 

  • Any of various lines used as punctuation or diacritics, such as the pipe ⟨|⟩, fraction bar (as in 12), and strikethrough (as in Ⱥ), formerly (obsolete) including oblique marks such as the slash. 

  • Anything that obstructs, hinders, or prevents; an obstruction; a barrier. 

  • 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. 

  • A city gate, in some British place names. 

  • An informal establishment selling food to be consumed on the premises. 

  • A business selling alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises, or the premises themselves; a public house. 

  • One of those musical sections. 

  • A vein or dike crossing a lode. 

  • A cuboid piece of any solid commodity. 

  • One of an array of bar-shaped symbols that display the level of something, such as wireless signal strength or battery life remaining. 

  • A gatehouse of a castle or fortified town. 

  • A horizontal pole that must be crossed in the high jump and pole vault. 

  • An official order or pronouncement that prohibits some activity. 

  • A measure of drugs, typically one ounce. 

  • The railing surrounding the part of a courtroom in which the judges, lawyers, defendants and witnesses stay. 

prep
  • Except, other than, besides. 

  • Denotes the minimum odds offered on other horses not mentioned by name. 

catch

verb
  • To entrap or trip up a person; to deceive. 

  • To attract and hold (a faculty or organ of sense). 

  • To grasp mentally: perceive and understand. 

  • To unpleasantly discover unexpectedly; to unpleasantly surprise (someone doing something). 

  • To acquire, as though by infection; to take on through sympathy or infection. 

  • To make a grasping or snatching motion (at). 

  • To take or replenish something necessary, such as breath or sleep. 

  • Of fire, to spread or be conveyed to. 

  • To be held back or impeded. 

  • To get pregnant. 

  • To end a player's innings by catching a hit ball before the first bounce. 

  • To be the victim of (something unpleasant, painful etc.). 

  • To reach (someone) with a strike, blow, weapon etc. 

  • To be hit by something. 

  • To receive or be affected by (wind, water, fire etc.). 

  • To have something be held back or impeded. 

  • To contact a wave in such a way that one can ride it back to shore. 

  • To travel by means of. 

  • To become infected by (an illness). 

  • To reproduce or echo a spirit or idea faithfully. 

  • To serve well or poorly for catching, especially for catching fish. 

  • To seize or intercept an object moving through the air (or, sometimes, some other medium). 

  • To grip (the water) with one's oars at the beginning of the stroke. 

  • To become pregnant. (Only in past tense or as participle.) 

  • To charm or entrance. 

  • To grip or entangle. 

  • To handle an exception. 

  • To play (a specific period of time) as the catcher. 

  • To spread by infection or similar means. 

  • To take in; to watch or listen to (an entertainment). 

  • To engage with some mechanism; to stick, to succeed in interacting with something or initiating some process. 

  • To capture or snare (someone or something which would rather escape). 

  • To germinate and set down roots. 

  • To be touched or affected by (something) through exposure. 

  • To overtake or catch up to; to be in time for. 

noun
  • The act of noticing, understanding or hearing. 

  • A crick; a sudden muscle pain during unaccustomed positioning when the muscle is in use. 

  • A stopping mechanism, especially a clasp which stops something from opening. 

  • The game of catching a ball. 

  • A hesitation in voice, caused by strong emotion. 

  • A find, in particular a boyfriend or girlfriend or prospective spouse. 

  • A fragment of music or poetry. 

  • The act of catching a hit ball before it reaches the ground, resulting in an out. 

  • Passing opportunities seized; snatches. 

  • The act of catching an object in motion, especially a ball. 

  • The act of seizing or capturing. 

  • A type of humorous round in which the voices gradually catch up with one another; usually sung by men and often having bawdy lyrics. 

  • A slight remembrance; a trace. 

  • A crop which has germinated and begun to grow. 

  • The first contact of an oar with the water. 

  • A concealed difficulty, especially in a deal or negotiation. 

  • A player in respect of his catching ability; particularly one who catches well. 

  • A stoppage of breath, resembling a slight cough. 

  • The refrain; a line or lines of a song which are repeated from verse to verse. 

  • Something which is captured or caught. 

How often have the words bar and catch occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )