Word
door
US/ˈdɔɹ/
UK/dˈɔː/
Definitions
01physical entrance
n. the moving panel you open and close to enter or leave a room, building, or car.
n. a movable barrier used to close off an entrance, typically consisting of a rigid panel that swings on hinges or slides in a groove.
“Please remember to lock the front door when you leave the house.”
“The heavy oak door swung open on silent hinges, revealing a dimly lit hallway lined with portraits of the estate's former owners.”
02entry point
n. a place where you enter a building or a specific house.
n. a point of entry or a building identified by its entrance, often used in phrases like 'next door'.
“He lives just two doors down from the local grocery store.”
“The delivery driver was instructed to leave the package at the side door if no one answered the main bell.”
Synonyms
03figurative access
n. a way to get something or reach a goal.
n. a figurative means of approach, access, or opportunity.
“This internship could open the door to a great career in fashion.”
“The new trade agreement opened the door for small businesses to export their products to international markets for the first time.”
Synonyms
04ticket sales
n. the money collected from people paying to enter a show or club.
n. the total proceeds from entrance fees or ticket sales at a venue, often used to determine performer pay.
“The band gets half of the money from the door tonight.”
“Despite the heavy rain, the door was surprisingly good, allowing the venue to cover the headliner's guarantee without dipping into bar profits.”
Informal
05to hit a cyclist with a car door
v. to open a car door suddenly and cause a cyclist to crash into it.
v. to cause a collision by opening a vehicle door into the path of an oncoming cyclist.
“He was badly injured when a driver doored him on a busy street.”
“The city launched a safety campaign to prevent cyclists from being doored by distracted passengers exiting taxis.”
Informal
Usage
The verb is transitive and often used in the passive voice.
Etymology
From Middle English dore, dor, from Old English duru (“door”), dor (“gate”), from Proto-West Germanic dur, from Proto-Germanic durz, from Proto-Indo-European dʰwṓr, from dʰwer- (“doorway, door, gate”). Cognates Cognate with Scots door (“door”), Saterland Frisian Doore (“door”), West Frisian doar (“door”), Dutch deur (“door”), German Low German Door, Döör (“door”), German Tür (“door”), Tor (“gate”), Danish, Norn, and Norwegian dør (“door”), Faroese and Icelandic dyr (“door”), Asturian, Aragonese, and Spanish fuera (“outside”), Catalan, Leonese, and Portuguese fora (“outside”), French hors (“outside”), Galician fóra (“outside”), Italian fuori (“outside”), Mirandese fuora (“outside”), Latin foris and foras (“outside”), Ancient Greek θύρα (thúra), Albanian derë (“door”), Central Kurdish دەرگە (derge, “door”), Northern Kurdish derî (“door”), Persian در (dar, “door”), Belarusian дзве́ры (dzvjéry, “door”), Bulgarian две́ри (dvéri, “royal doors”), Czech dveře (“door”), Latvian durvis (“door”), Lithuanian durys (“door”), Macedonian двер (dver, “door”), Polish drzwi (“door”), Russian дверь (dverʹ), Serbo-Croatian dvȇri (“door”), dvar (“door”), Ukrainian две́рі (dvéri, “door”), Hindi द्वार (dvār, “door”), Armenian դուռ (duṙ, “door”), Irish doras (“door”), Sanskrit द्वार (dvāra, “door”). Despite similarities in spelling, not cognate with Dutch door, which is instead cognate with English through.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Collocations
Word family
Idioms
bang down the door — To present oneself as a strong candidate for a role or achievement, explicitly or implicitly.
blow the doors off — To be much more important or impressive than.
close the stable door after the horse has bolted — To attempt to prevent a problem that has already occurred; to design and implement a preventive mechanism that is too late (after the first failure instead of before).
darken a church door — To go to church to attend a service.
darken someone's door — To arrive at someone's residence or location, especially as an unexpected visitor.
don't let the door hit you on the way out — Used as a command to leave in haste, or to indicate that one is glad, or at least unmoved, to see the addressed person leaving.
get one's foot in the door — To initiate contact or a relationship; to gain access, especially to an entry-level job.
get the door — To open a door to help another person to pass through.
go in the out door — To engage in anal sex.
keep the wolf from the door — To ward off poverty or hunger.
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kick at an open door — To carry out a redundant activity.
knock on heaven's door — To die or be close to death.
knocking on heaven's door — Dying, close to death.
lay at someone's door — To blame (a problem) on someone; to hold someone responsible for (something).
leave at the door — To dispense with something for now; to forget about it situationally, or omit or discard it in a given place or instance.
leave the door open — To maintain the possibility of something happening in the future.
lie at someone's door — To be the fault or responsibility of someone.
make a better door than a window — To obstruct someone's view, especially as a result of thoughtlessness.
open doors — To lead to opportunities or social advantages.
open the door — To allow access or facilitate.
push against an open door — To do something pointless or unnecessary; to try doing something already done.
revolving door syndrome — A situation in which employee turnover in an organization is inordinately high.
screen door on a submarine — Something that is useless or absurd.
show someone the door — To escort someone to the exit of the premises; to expel someone from a room, gathering, etc.