The rood screen was a physical and symbolic barrier, separating the chancel, the domain of the clergy, from the nave where lay people gathered to worship.

Students who officially became lawyers crossed the symbolic physical barrier and were "admitted to the bar".

The selection of Ms. Campbell broke what had become the ultimate symbolic and psychological barrier for Canadian women.

Within days Israeli journalists were allowed into Cairo, breaking a symbolic barrier, and from there the peace process quickly gained momentum.

All that separates the two narrators is a trap door, serving as the thin symbolic barrier between adult life and childhood.

She glanced up at the photosphere, the symbolic barrier separating her forever from the Universe of humanity.

The eight-minute two-mile may not be half the symbolic barrier that the four-minute mile once represented, but it clearly is no Sunday jog.

It recently crossed the symbolic barrier of 10,000 inhabitants and thus became officially a city.

He shifted the bow from his left shoulder to his right so that it wasn't a symbolic barrier between the two of them.

The boxes are loosely tied with twine, which cannot protect their contents but may serve as a symbolic barrier against loss.