Dictionary

foredoor en · NOUN

Etymology

From fore- + door. Cognate with Scots foredoor.

Meanings

1. A door located at the fore part of a house or dwelling; front door.
   • This morning the great foredoor quite open, dancing backwards and forwards with all its weight upon the lower hinge, which must have been broken if the dean had not accidentally come and relieved it. 1768, Jonathan Swift, The Works of J. Swift:
   • I begged, prayed, would have kneeled to him: But all was in vain: The tyger-hearted man, as Mr. Greville had truly called him, muffled me up in it, and by force carried me thro' a long entry to the foredoor. 2014, Samuel Richardson, Delphi Complete Works of Samuel Richardson (Illustrated):
   • All the pewter is thrown about the kitchen.” But when they looked, all the pewter stood in its place. There then was a loud knocking at the back-door. My father opened it, but saw nothing. It was then at the foredoor. He opened that : but it was still lost labour. 1825, Horace WELBY (pseud. [i.e. John Timbs.]), Signs before Death:

Forms