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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1952 (SND Vol. III).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

DEBAR, v., n.

1. v. To exclude formally from the Communion Table those guilty of certain sins (see 1882 quot.). Also fig. Vbl.n. debarring.Sc. 1709 W. Steuart Collect. and Obs. Ch. Scot. 138:
The Minister and Session having . . . debarr'd Persons from the Lord's Table . . . this Doctrinal debarring may scarr such from partaking.Sc. 1823 Scots Mag. (Aug.) 164:
Farley [a clergyman] . . . went to work like a man, or rather like a madman, debarring from that table.Sc. 1874 A. Hislop Sc. Anecdotes 191:
In “fencing” the tables, what was called the Debarring was always lengthened and minute.Lnk. 1813 G. MacIndoe Wandering Muse 39:
Satan's a Deacon at debarring sin An weel it sets his gab.

Hence debarrance, debarration, such formal exclusion.Sc. 1862 J. MacFarlane Life G. Lawson ii.:
It is doubtful if these “debarrances” (another name for this peculiar service) ever kept away one who had determined to communicate.Sc. 1882 G. W. Sprott Worship Ch. Scot. iii.:
This address came to be popularly known as the Fencing of the Table . . . its most prominent feature came to be a series of debarrations beginning thus: “I debar from the Table of the Lord” such and such a class.

2. n. In pl. = debarrance, above.Bwk. c.1830 R. Gibson Old Bwksh. Town (1905) 195:
At sacramental times . . . on the Sabbath he would preach the introductory sermon, then the action sermon, fence the tables — “the debars” — serve five or more tables with an address before and after each, followed by another sermon.