Idiom
darken someone's door
Meaning
To arrive at someone's residence or location, especially as an unexpected visitor.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“I hope he never darkens my door again.”
“You should not darken their door without calling them first.”
“After our argument, he promised he would never darken my door again.”
“The salesman tried to darken my door every Tuesday until I finally put up a sign that said no visitors.”
“My old neighbor used to darken my door whenever he ran out of sugar or needed to borrow tools for his garden.”
“She warned her estranged brother that if he dared to darken her door, she would call the police immediately.”
Examples
simple
“I hope he never darkens my door again.”
“You should not darken their door without calling them first.”
contextual
“After our argument, he promised he would never darken my door again.”
“The salesman tried to darken my door every Tuesday until I finally put up a sign that said no visitors.”
“My old neighbor used to darken my door whenever he ran out of sugar or needed to borrow tools for his garden.”
complex
“She warned her estranged brother that if he dared to darken her door, she would call the police immediately.”
Origin
The idiom likely originates from the physical shadow cast by a visitor standing at a threshold, which causes the entrance to appear darkened. An alternative theory suggests a derivation from an obsolete sense of the verb darken, meaning to lie in wait, loiter, or lurk. The expression serves as a formal notice that one’s presence is no longer required at a particular address, though the specific date of its first appearance remains unrecorded in the source.
Key words
Related idioms
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