bar sinister
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Despite so much blue blood, the bar sinister seared James Smithson all his life.
From Time Magazine Archive
Entitled A Family Album, it opens with an ancestral chart that looks at first glance like the Stuart family tree, minus the bar sinister.
From Time Magazine Archive
Yet Christian was branded with the bar sinister; the only title he could really claim was, affectionate or derisive, "General Crack."
From Time Magazine Archive
One result: a son, James Smithson, who became a leading chemist, but because of the bar sinister never a duke.
From Time Magazine Archive
But, Cleveland, you know that we come from an old and noble stock, where the bar sinister has never crossed our escutcheon, and I can not yet make up my mind to an immediate engagement.
From Captain Brand of the "Centipede" A Pirate of Eminence in the West Indies: His Love and Exploits, Together with Some Account of the Singular Manner by Which He Departed This Life by Wise, H. A. (Henry Augustus)
