[CROW sb.1 5 + BAR.] An iron bar with a wedge-shaped end (usually slightly bent and sometimes forked), used as a lever or prise by quarrymen, lumbermen, house-breakers, etc. In earlier use called simply CROW.
1768. Penn. Gaz., 11 Feb., 3/1. The Rioters within had a Sledge, Crow-bar, and Ax, with which (as some say) they broke the inner Gaol Door.
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, I. 398. [To fetch] a crow-bar.
1862. Lond. Rev., 23 Aug., 172. Burglars, using the crowbar, the gimlet, and saw, to burst open doors and shutters.
fig. 1867. Cornh. Mag., April, 449. Even in progressive England the crowbar of reform spares the village inn.
b. attrib.
1885. W. J. Fitzpatrick, Life T. N. Burke, III. 30, note. Exterminating landlords, who pulled down the cabins of poor tenants, were called ‘the Crowbar Brigade.’
1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 26 April, 11/2. Evictions … at Knockrush … with sheriff, crowbar brigade, and all.
Hence Crow-bar v., to force with a crow-bar.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxix. (1856), 253. We had to send out parties to crow-bar away the ice from our bowsprit.
