bar sinister

“A bar sinister,” he said to Penny, pointing.

The “bar sinister” of the novelists is probably the baston sinister, with the ends couped, which has since the time of Charles II. been familiar on the arms of certain descendants of the royal house.

Then, when that moment of madness was upon them both, he had suddenly wounded her acutely sensitive, bitterly proud soul by drawing the bar sinister.

But there is nothing to lead us to believe that Franklin was more concerned about the second bar sinister in his coat of arms than the first.

Would'st 'rase the bar sinister from thy shield, Or, what is much the same, cast it i' the shade, So that it appear not for the lustre Of thy many and resplendent virtues?