Bars
Bars noun - Gymnastic apparatus consisting of two parallel wooden rods supported on uprights.
Stripes
Stripes noun - V-shaped sleeve badge indicating military rank and service.
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Synonyms for Stripes
Both words in one sentence
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In the class that Sloan is pulled out of, the teacher is discussing prison in fiction, and the background behind Sloan is patterned in vertical stripes; that is, prison-like bars.
Source: Film / Ferris Bueller's Day Off - The inversions are Trading Bars for Stripes, where a character facing prison time or in prison is given the choice of serving in the military instead, and Recruiting the Criminal.
Source: From Camouflage To Criminal - Compare Trading Bars for Stripes, where the prisoner is put into the military instead, and Reassigned to Antarctica, when it's not a prison sentence but the effect is the same.
Source: Sentenced to Down Under
Cite this Source
Stripes and Bars. (2016). Retrieved 2026, August 10, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/bars/stripes
Bars & Stripes. N.p., 2016. Web. 10 Aug. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/bars/stripes>.
Stripes or Bars. 2016. Accessed August 10, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/bars/stripes.
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