doorstep

English

Etymology

From door +‎ step.

Pronunciation

• (deprecated use of |lang= parameter) Rhymes: -ɛp

Noun

doorstep (plural doorsteps)

1. Step of a door. The threshold of a doorway.
   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 10, in The China Governess‎^[1]:

     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.

   On one's doorstep.

2. (figuratively) One's immediate neighbourhood 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.

3. (UK, informal) A big slice, especially of bread.
   • 2003, Diana Wynne Jones, The Merlin Conspiracy, P 241 →ISBN

     I cut myself a doorstep of bread with masses of butter and went along to see Romanov while I was eating it.

Translations

threshold of a doorway

• Arabic: عَتَبَةُ الْبَابِ f (ʕatabatu l-bābi)
• Bashkir: тупһа (tupha), буҫаға (buśağa)
• Belarusian: паро́г m (paróh)
• Bulgarian: праг (bg) m (prag)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 門階／门阶 (zh) (ménjiē), 门阶 (zh) (ménjiē), 門檻／门槛 (zh) (ménkǎn), 门槛 (zh) (ménkǎn)

• Czech: práh (cs) m
• Finnish: kynnys (fi)
• French: seuil (fr) m
• Galician: limiar m, soarego (gl) m, soleira (gl) f
• German: Eingangsstufe f, Türschwelle (de) f
• Greek: κατώφλι (el) n (katófli)
• Japanese: 戸口の踏み段 (とぐちのふみだん, toguchi no fumidan)
• Latin: līmen n
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Macedonian: праг m (prag)
• Polish: próg (pl) m
• Portuguese: soleira (pt) f
• Russian: поро́г (ru) m (poróg)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: праг m

  Roman: prag (sh) m

• Slovak: prah m
• Slovene: prag (sl) m
• Spanish: umbral (es) m
• Swedish: tröskel (sv) c
• Thai: ธรณีประตู (tɔɔ-rá-nii-bprà-dtuu)
• Tibetan: སྒོའི་ཐེམ (sgo'i them)
• Ukrainian: порі́г m (poríh)

big slice of bread

• Bulgarian: дебела филия f (debela filija)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: fationa f

Verb

doorstep (third-person singular simple present doorsteps, present participle doorstepping, simple past and past participle doorstepped)

1. (transitive, journalism) To corner somebody for an unexpected interview.
   • 1998, Emily O'Reilly, Veronica Guerin: The Life and Death of a Crime Reporter:

     Throughout her time in journalism, she doorstepped politicians, the child of a politician, crime victims, armed robbers, murderers, suspected murderers...

   • 2006, Denis O'Hearn, Nothing But an Unfinished Song:

     Surprisingly few people refused to talk, even those I doorstepped or telephoned out of the blue.

See also

• ambush journalism

Anagrams

• droopest, optrodes, pet doors, torpedos