Word.ws English Dictionary

doorkey

doorkey noun: a key that locks and unlocks a door.

Noun

doorkey (plural doorkeys)

  1. A key that locks and unlocks a door.
    • Don had his doorkeys in his hand, and he stuck one of the doorkeys between the box door and the brass frame and used it as a lever. The brass front bent enough for him to reach the letters.1969, Patricia Highsmith, “The Birds Poised to Fly”, in The Snail-Watcher and Other Stories, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, Inc., published 1970, →LCCN, →OCLC, pages 14–15
    • Their plan was deceptively simple. Thelonius’s babymamma Lilette worked as a cleaning-lady – but never for very long. As soon as any household felt the time was right to entrust her with a doorkey, Lilette felt the time was right to entrust it to Thelonius (who had it copied) and then quit the...1989, Martin Amis, “Little Did They Know”, in London Fields, New York, N.Y.: Harmony Books, →ISBN, page 247

Examples of doorkey in a sentence

  • As soon as any household felt the time was right to entrust her with a doorkey, Lilette felt the time was right to entrust it to Thelonius (who had it copied) and then quit the following day.1989, Martin Amis, “Little Did They Know”, in London Fields, New York, N.Y.: Harmony Books, →ISBN, page 247:
  • This proved useful when she and Barnett lost the doorkey, as they were able to reach through the broken pane to pull back the spring-lock.1991, Paul Begg, Martin Fido, Keith Skinner, “Kelly, Mary Jane or Marie Jeanette”, in The Jack the Ripper A to Z, London: Headline...

Forms of doorkey

pluraldoorkeys

Origin of doorkey

From door + key.

Questions about doorkey

What does doorkey mean?
Doorkey means a key that locks and unlocks a door.
How do you use doorkey in a sentence?
As soon as any household felt the time was right to entrust her with a doorkey, Lilette felt the time was right to entrust it to Thelonius (who had it copied) and then quit the following day.
What part of speech is doorkey?
Doorkey is a noun.
What is the plural of doorkey?
The plural of doorkey is doorkeys.

Words near doorkey in the dictionary

  1. doorjamb
  2. doorjambs
  3. doorkeeper
  4. doorkeepers
  5. doorkeeping
  6. doorkey
  7. doorkeys
  8. doorknob
  9. doorknob complaint
  10. doorknob complaints
  11. doorknob phenomena

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: doorkey (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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