A stanchion is an upright bar or post, often providing support for some other object.

• An architectural
  Architecture
  Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
  
   term applied to the upright iron bars in windows that pass through the eyes of the saddle bars or horizontal irons to steady the leadlight
  Leadlight
  Leadlights or leaded lights are decorative windows made of small sections of glass supported in lead cames. The technique of creating windows using glass and lead came is discussed at lead came and copper foil glasswork...
  
  . (The French call the latter traverses, the stanchions montants, and the whole arrangement armature. Stanchions frequently finish with ornamental heads forged out of the iron.)

• An architectural
  Architecture
  Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
  
   term applied to metal supporting members of lighting mounted from a lower elevation. This includes:
  • The metal inclined member for mounting a streetlight to a telephone or power pole.
  • The dedicated metal vertical support of a self-supporting or bottom-fed streetlight. In this case, the stanchion pole may double as the raceway
    Raceway
    Raceway may refer to:* Race track, a place where races are run or operated* In construction projects, a surface mounted wire moulding* A mill race, the current or channel of a stream...
    
     for the electrical feed to the lighting.
  • In industrial installations, walkway lighting may be mounted with a stanchion that is secured to a hand-rail). Stanchion Lights are typically spaced 50' along walkways, such as conveyor platforms.

• Upright posts inserted into the ground or floor to protect the corner of a wall. These may also be referred to as baluster
  Baluster
  A baluster is a moulded shaft, square or of lathe-turned form, one of various forms of spindle in woodwork, made of stone or wood and sometimes of metal, standing on a unifying footing, and supporting the coping of a parapet or the handrail of a staircase. Multiplied in this way, they form a...
  
  s

Stanchions are used for many different purposes including crowd control & waiting lines. Many different places use stanchions including banks, restaurants, trade shows and many different other events.

• Portable posts used to manage lines and queues.
  • Fixed posts with decorative ropes
  • Retractable belt stanchions
    • Using a spring mechanism
    • Using a weighted pulley system

• Vertical support for chains or ropes, as in marine applications (lifelines on yachts are supported by stanchions).

• Metal mounts securing the headrest
  Headrest
  In an automobile, head restraints are attached or integrated into the top of the seats in each seating position to limit the rearward movement of an adult occupant's head relative to his torso in a crash, so as to reduce the danger of whiplash or other injury to the cervical vertebrae...
  
   to the seat in a car.

• In association football and other goal-based sports, horizontal or diagonal extensions to the goalposts that prevent the goalnet from drooping.

• In military aircraft
  Military aircraft
  A military aircraft is any fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft that is operated by a legal or insurrectionary armed service of any type. Military aircraft can be either combat or non-combat:...
  
  , the vertical supports for troop seating temporarily installed in cargo aircraft
  Cargo aircraft
  A cargo aircraft is a fixed-wing aircraft designed or converted for the carriage of goods, rather than passengers. They are usually devoid of passenger amenities, and generally feature one or more large doors for the loading and unloading of cargo...
  
  .

• On board most buses, are vertical supports, to provide stability when passengers are standing. They are located throughout most city buses and are connected to seats, floor, etc.

• The metal head bails in dairy barn
  Dairy farming
  Dairy farming is a class of agricultural, or an animal husbandry, enterprise, for long-term production of milk, usually from dairy cows but also from goats and sheep, which may be either processed on-site or transported to a dairy factory for processing and eventual retail sale.Most dairy farms...
  
  s that lock the cows in place while they are milked.

• The two upper members of the bicycle fork
  Bicycle fork
  A bicycle fork is the portion of a bicycle that holds the front wheel and allows the rider to steer and balance the bicycle. A fork consists of two fork ends which hold the front wheel axle, two blades which join at a fork crown, and a steerer or steering tube to which the handlebars attach ...
  
   that connect to the crown (also called fork legs).

• In yachting, metal bars that hold the life-lines around a boat's perimeter.

• In river rafting, metal bars that hold the yokes for oars.

• As part of ice hockey
  Ice hockey
  Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
  
  rink boards, used to hold panes of glass in place.