doorstep
/ˈdɔː(ɹ)stɛp/
doorstep noun: an outside step leading up to the door of a building, usually a home.
Noun
doorstep (plural doorsteps)
- An outside step leading up to the door of a building, usually a home.
- Ailie was standing by the doorstep as he came down the road, and her heart stood still with joy.1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
- With a little manœuvring they contrived to meet on the doorstep which was […] in a boiling stream of passers-by, hurrying business people speeding past in a flurry of fumes and dust in the bright haze.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 10, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
- Synonyms:
- doorsill
- One's immediate neighborhood or locality.
- They want to build the prison right on our doorstep; it will only be half a mile away and being that close scares me.
- As a Hitchin signalman once pointed out to me, when a regulating quandary arises concerning a fast-moving Class A train there is no time to consult Control and get their answer before the express is on one's doorstep.1962 May, G. Freeman Allen, “Traffic control on the Great Northern Line”, in Modern Railways, page 343
- A thick slice, especially of bread.
- I cut myself a doorstep of bread with masses of butter and went along to see Romanov while I was eating it.2003, Diana Wynne Jones, The Merlin Conspiracy, P 241, →ISBN
Verb
doorstep (third-person singular simple present doorsteps, present participle doorstepping, simple past and past participle doorstepped)
- To visit one household after another to solicit sales, charitable donations, political support, etc.
- To corner somebody for an unexpected interview.
- Throughout her time in journalism, she doorstepped politicians, the child of a politician, crime victims, armed robbers, murderers, suspected murderers...1998, Emily O'Reilly, Veronica Guerin: The Life and Death of a Crime Reporter
- Surprisingly few people refused to talk, even those I doorstepped or telephoned out of the blue.2006, Denis O'Hearn, Nothing But an Unfinished Song
doorstep meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Telugu and Nepali
doorstep in Tamil
- வாசல், வாசப்படி
doorstep in Marathi
- outside step leading up to the door of a building
- उंबरठा Umbartha
doorstep in Telugu
- డోర్ స్టెప్, డోర్ స్టేపింగ్, డోర్ స్టెపింగ్
doorstep in Nepali
- डोरस्टेप, डोरस्टेपिङ, डोरस्टेपिङ्ग
More languagesFewer languages
- doorstep in Arabic
- عَتَبَةُ الْبَابِ ʕatabatu l-bābi
- doorstep in Thai
- ธรณีประตู tɔɔ-rá-nii-bprà-dtuu
Examples of doorstep in a sentence
- The narrow streets that twist and turn through the compact heart of Dent are surfaced with cobbles which, in the absence of pavements, spread right across from doorstep to doorstep.1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 150:
- Milk from the Eden Valley could be on London doorsteps the next morning.2021 November 17, Mark Rand, “Reconnecting rail freight to S&C quarries”, in RAIL, number 944, page 52:
Synonyms of doorstep
Forms of doorstep
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | doorsteps |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | doorsteps |
| present participle | doorstepping |
| past participle | doorstepped |
| past | doorstepped |
Origin of doorstep
From door + step.
Words formed from doorstep
Phrases with doorstep
Words that rhyme with doorstep
Questions about doorstep
- What does doorstep mean?
- Doorstep means an outside step leading up to the door of a building, usually a home.
- What is doorstep in Tamil?
- Doorstep in Tamil is வாசல், வாசப்படி. See Doorstep meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use doorstep in a sentence?
- The narrow streets that twist and turn through the compact heart of Dent are surfaced with cobbles which, in the absence of pavements, spread right across from doorstep to doorstep.
- What part of speech is doorstep?
- Doorstep can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce doorstep?
- Doorstep is pronounced /ˈdɔː(ɹ)stɛp/.
- What is the plural of doorstep?
- The plural of doorstep is doorsteps.
Words near doorstep in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: doorstep (page history and authors); doorstep (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); doorstep (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); doorstep (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-doorstep.wav.
Cite this entry: “doorstep.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/doorstep. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.