door. Movable lockable barrier of wood or other material consisting of one piece, or of several pieces framed together, usually turning on hinges or sliding in a groove, serving to permit or bar access through a doorway. Commonly supported on hinges secured to the door-post or door-frame, a door may also turn on pivots at the top and bottom (an arrangement usual in Antiquity), slide, or roll up horizontally or vertically, and itself can be divided into more folds, or valves, hinged to the frame or each other. In traditional timber-framed (see below) doors the horizontal timbers are called rails, the verticals at the sides stiles, and the vertical in the centre muntin.

Types of traditional door include:batten: see ledged below;bivalve: door with two leaves meeting in the middle;blind: door with fixed or movable slats having the character of, and serving as, a blind. Also a sham door;casement: door with a glazed part above the middle rail, usually with diminishing stiles on either side of the glazed part (itself subdivided with glazing-bars);crapaudine: door turning on a pivot at top and bottom;double: door divided into two folds or valves;double margin: door looking as though it has two leaves with a muntin looking like a stile in the centre, twice as wide as the side stiles, but with its centre beaded or otherwise finished to make it resemble two stiles, therefore showing a double margin;Dutch: divided horizontally into two pieces so that the lower part can be kept shut, also called half-door;false: immovable, imitation door;flap: small vertical door hinged at the bottom to open downwards, or one placed horizontally and opening up;flush: with its construction concealed behind plain flush faces, usually plywood;folding: door divided into two or more valves hinged to the frame or to each other, properly called bivalve, quadrivalve, etc. In larger heavier doors, the valves should be supported on wheels;framed: with a timber frame all round, consisting of vertical stiles (one of which is the hanging stile to which the hinges are fixed) and horizontal rails top and bottom. An additional middle or lock rail (in which the locks are fixed) is usual, while in panelled doors a central vertical element, the muntin, is found;framed, ledged, braced, and battened: with top, middle, and bottom rail mortised and tenoned into two stiles, and two braces housed into the rails rising diagonally from the hinged side, clad on the outside with vertical boards or battens;half: one half of a Dutch door, or the entire Dutch door, or a door less high than the doorway, with an opening top and bottom;Holy: door to the iconostasis in a church;jib: hinged flush door set in a wall or panelling without a visible frame, designed to be almost invisible to preserve the appearance of a wall, etc., where a visible door would be unacceptable;ledged and battened: with horizontal rails or ledges (to which hinges and other ironmongery can be fixed), clad with vertical boards or battens outside;ledged, braced, and battened: as ledged and battened, but stiffened by means of braces or struts set diagonally (in better work mortised and tenoned into the ledges) and rising from the hanging side;overhung: hinged at the top and swinging outwards;panelled: framed door with a frame and one or more panels. As with a framed door (see above) the frame consists of horizontal top and bottom rails (for one panel), a middle or lock rail (for four or more panels) to which the handles, locks, etc. are fixed, and a frieze rail (where there are six panels) near the top, with vertical stiles (one hanging (to which the hinges are fixed) and the other shutting). Where there are four or more panels a central vertical muntin is placed between the rails. In panelled doors the frame is exposed and expressed, surrounding the panels, which can be plain, decorated, raised, or fielded;revolving: four flaps or valves fixed at right angles to each other and hung from a central pivot at the axis of a cylinder within which the doors revolve. The outer edges of the valves are finished with rubber or other materials so that close contact is maintained with the cylindrical shell. Access is like a turnstile. It helps to conserve energy and prevent draughts;rolling: type of shutter consisting of slats joined together and rolling on a suspended axle;sash: see casement above;sham: finished on one side and set into a wall or partition to look like a door for reasons of appearance or symmetry, really a kind of blind door;sliding: one sliding horizontally on tracks, often suspended from wheeled brackets, and some times designed to be housed within a wall;storm: door or pair of doors, commonly extra outer doors to give added protection in cold weather;swing: with no striking piece, commonly with double-action spring hinges, used e.g. for doors between kitchen and dining-room in a restaurant.trap: fitted to a horizontal surface to give access to a cellar or roof;wicket: small door forming part of a very large one, as in a big church-door.

Bibliography

W. McKay (1957);
W. Papworth (1852)

door / dôr/ • n. a hinged, sliding, or revolving barrier at the entrance to a building, room, or vehicle, or in the framework of a cupboard. ∎  a doorway: she walked through the door. ∎  used to refer to the distance from one building in a row to another: they lived within three doors of each other. ∎ fig. a means of access, admission, or exit; a means to a specified end: that audition was the door to all my future successes | a democratic educational system requires multiple doors.PHRASES: at the door on admission to an event rather than in advance: tickets will be available at the door.close (or shut) the door on (or to) exclude the opportunity for: she had closed the door on ever finding out what he was feeling. (from) door to door1. from start to finish of a journey: the trip from door to door could take more than four hours.2. visiting all the houses in an area to sell or publicize something: he went from door to door selling insurance policies | [as adj.] a door-to-door-salesman. lay something at someone's door regard someone as responsible for something: the failure is laid at the door of the government.leave the door open ensure that there is still an opportunity for something: he is leaving the door open for future change.open the door to create an opportunity for: her research has opened the door to a deeper understanding of the subject.out of doors in or into the open air: food tastes even better out of doors.show someone the door see show.DERIVATIVES: doored adj. [in comb.] a glass-doored desk.ORIGIN: Old English duru, dor, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch deur ‘door’ and German Tür ‘door,’ Tor ‘gate’; from an Indo-European root shared by Latin foris ‘gate’ and Greek thura ‘door.’

door
i. OE. duru (fem. u-stem) = OS. duru, corr. to other Gmc. (orig. pl.) forms with i-stem, ODu. dori pl. (Du. deur fem. sg.), OHG. turi (G. tür fem. sg.), ON, dyrr fem pl. and n., Goth. daurōns fem. wk. pl.

ii. OE. dor n. = OS. dor, (O)HG. tor gate, Goth. daur n. The IE. base *dhur- *dhwēr- is repr. also by Skr. dvā́r-, Gr. thúrā, L. forēs, OIr. dorus, OSl. dvĭrĭ gate, dvorŭ court, Lith. dùrys gate. The ME. descendants of OE. duru and dor coalesced.

door a door must either be shut or open said of two mutually exclusive alternatives; saying recorded from the mid 18th century.
leave the door open ensure that there is still an opportunity for something.

See also when one door shuts.