to bar mitzvah
- verb
- /bɑr ˈmɪtsvə/
- He will be bar mitzvahed during the ceremony at the synagogue.
- get bar mitzvahed
And I wasn't bar mitzvahed, which was in my neighborhood.
- And I wasn't bar mitzvahed, which was in my neighborhood.
- So instead of being knighted, Sir Irving was blanked Bar mitzvahed.
- I wasn't bar mitzvahed because of bar mitzvahs where you're right, relatives and there was no relatives to invite.
Examples
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At his bar mitzvah, he read from the Torah for the first time.
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Were you ever bar mitzvahed anywhere else?
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The last time I took gifts was when I was bar mitzvah'd.
Fiction book (1995) -
I'm gonna be bar mitzvahed tomorrow.
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His parents won't bar mitzvah him until you come home.
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He said you were bar mitzvahed there in March of 1988.
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So, Timmy... your mom tells me you're gonna be bar mitzvahed soon.
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After studying for months, David is excited to finally get bar mitzvahed this weekend.
Synonyms
To take part in a Jewish ceremony that marks becoming an adult usually at age thirteen
Surface Forms
Morphology
bar + mitzvah
The overall meaning (a Jewish coming-of-age ceremony for a boy) cannot be derived from the listed constituents: 'mitzvah' (commandment/good deed) does not transparently indicate a ceremony, and 'bar' is not given as the Hebrew element meaning 'son' (and would be confused with English 'bar'). This is a culturally specific lexicalized phrase borrowed from Hebrew, so an average B1 learner who merely knows the constituent words would not predict the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The verb bar mitzvah comes from the same words bar ('son') and mitzvah ('commandment'). To bar mitzvah someone is to mark that the boy now has religious duties, so it means 'to take part in the coming-of-age ceremony'.