A refrain that seemed to dominate all the air, uttering its message again ang again; and it said: "Four to one, bar one." From this Mona knew that the races were beginning.
This is from "The Story pf Mona Sheehy" by Lord Dunsany.
I don't understand the meaning of "Four to one, bar one."
Mona was beside a roulette. And the race should be a horse race. "Four to one" means a odds? "bar one" means a horse gate?
I am glad somebody would kindly teach me.
When said about a race, "four to one bar one" means that the odds for all of the horses are four to one or better, except for ("bar") one horse, the favourite.
bar A preposition meaning 'except', probably derived from the verb bar in the sense `to exclude from consideration, set aside,' The betting usages are bar one, as in '5/1 bar one', meaning that all horses in the race, with the exception of the favourite, are being offered at a price of 5/1 or better (also bar two, etc.); or, more simply, bar on its own, as in '20/1 bar', meaning that all the other horses whose prices have not been given are on offer at 20/1 or better. The OED's first attestation is from Hotten's 1860 Dictionary of Slang, where he identifies it as 'in common use in the betting-ring: "I bet against the field bar two."'
PREPOSITION British Except for.
‘his kids were all gone now, bar one’
1.1 Horse Racing
Except the horses indicated (used when stating the odds).
