ˈdoor-step
a. The step at the threshold of a door, raised above the level of the ground outside.
| 1810 Cromek Rem. Nithsdale Song 301 (Jam.) Coupe yere dish-water farther frae yere door-step. 1840 Dickens Old C. Shop II. x. 74 She..sat down upon a door-step. 1874 L. Stephen Hours in Library (1892) II. vi. 200 The prudent person whose charity ends at his own doorstep. |
b. slang. A thick slice of bread.
| 1885 Eng. Illustr. Mag. June 604/2 ‘Doorsteps’, I found, were thick slices of bread spread with jam. 1924 Lawrence & Skinner Boy in Bush iv. 55 Everybody..chewed huge doorsteps of bread. 1933 W. de la Mare Lord Fish 88 The door-step [proved to be] a slab of bread with a scrimp of margarine. 1959 Times 5 Nov. 13/6 There is..nothing exclusive about the childish use of..‘door step’ for a thick piece of bread. 1969 Listener 17 Apr. 533/3 Won't you slice me a doorstep please? |
c. attrib. and fig. (phr. on the (or one's) door-step, near by).
| 1906 Daily Chron. 4 Jan. 4/1 Dr. Cooper's fight is in every respect a ‘doorstep’ affair. 1908 Ibid. 20 Feb. 3/5 All the prisoners concerned in the ‘doorstep’ campaign. 1909 Westm. Gaz. 25 Oct. 9/2 We still want doorstep workers. 1909 Daily Chron. 30 Dec. 3/4 The Christmas-boxes that custom decrees, are as follows... This..includes only the doorstep tributes. 1949 Blunden After Bombing 17 Japan's young children, staring shy..From mother's back Or door⁓step-side. 1952 New Statesman 29 Mar. 370/3 Most visitors brought doorstep sandwiches and huge home-made pasties to eat with their pint-pots of tea. 1957 A. Huxley Let. 8 Apr. (1969) 823 The ultimate revolution..is here on our doorstep. 1958 A. White tr. Colette's Claudine in Paris iv. 30 Just a few yards from here, there's a delightful flat, and we'd be practically on each other's doorsteps. 1959 Listener 26 Nov. 945/3 Mr. Conrad Aiken has called it ‘..a classic right on the doorstep’. 1963 Times 1 Feb. 6/3 Lord Champion said hire-purchase commitments were often entered into through a stupid desire to keep up with the Joneses. This feeling was exploited by doorstep salesmen. 1970 J. Porter Rather Common Sort of Crime ii. 20 A wide experience of doorstep salesmen had taught her to examine life's doorstep offers with the utmost care. |