barway n [EDD (with exx from seEngl)] NEast, esp NEng
An opening in a fence blocked by movable bars.
1826 in 1827 VT Supreme Court Reports 229, The indictment charges that this bar-way led from said barn-yard towards and into the meadow or enclosure of Durfee. 1835 Lit. Jrl. 1.55, He passed through the bar-ways, let down and put up the bars, and having arrived at home . . discovered that he had been dragging the bridle the whole distance and had left the horse in the pasture. 1863 (1864) Mitchell My Farm 207 NEng, Broken bar-ways have been replaced by new ones. 1884 Century Illustr. Mag. 7.218/1 NY, Lines and boundaries are disregarded; gates and bar-ways are unclosed. 1904 DN 2.424 Cape Cod MA (as of 1850s), Barway. . . A driveway closed by bars. 1910 DN 3.452 seVT, Drive in at the second barway. 1954 Progress (Clearfield PA) 6 Apr 4/1, There is usually a time in the fourth month when the countryman runs his pasture boundaries, makes sure all is tight for the season, repairs barways, and if necessary, digs holes for a new fence line. 1967 Borland Hill Country 271 nwCT, When we first came to this lower Berkshire country . . my neighbor . . spoke of a barway. It baffled me, until I saw that what he meant was what I had always called a gate. But his word for it was logical. Most of the gates, as I called them, were closed by long cedar poles, bars, slipped into slots on each side. 1971 Bennington Banner (VT) 1 Dec 6/5, Your neighbor’s son . . says he’s stuck in your barway a half mile down the road and that he is reasonably certain that your 90 horsepower tractor would free his VW from a snowdrift.