French door
9
3.4
- noun
- /frɛntʃ dɔr/
:
puerta francesa
- When he could see again, the first thing he noticed was that the French doors were wide open.
- open French doors
- a pair of French doors
- double French doors
Examples
-
Along the corridor of the second story, there were French doors that opened out onto a balcony.
Fiction book (1992) -
The far wall was almost entirely taken up with windows and a French door opening onto a small garden.
Fiction book (1990) -
The windows and French doors were closed because it was high summer.
Fiction book (2001) -
Replace the French doors with glass.
-
I can remember it sitting in her dining room, with the French doors on one side.
Fiction book (1997) -
After a moment, she moves toward a bank of curtained French doors and tries a handle.
Fiction book (1998) -
Georgia directed her to a cluster of chairs arranged near French doors that looked out over the lake.
Fiction book (1996) -
Bob walked through French doors into the sunlit morning, each step a deliberate motion.
Fiction book (1999) -
Once upstairs, Matthew followed the carpeted hallway through double French doors, where the last two suites were partially sequestered.
Fiction book (1994) -
The house is filled with natural light thanks to the elegant French doors that connect the living room to the patio.
Synonyms
2
3.7
A pair of glass doors that open onto a garden or balcony
How Glazed
Surface Forms
Morphology
The modifier 'French' signals a type or style of door, so a B1 learner who knows 'French' and 'door' can infer this is a particular kind of door; however the defining details (glass panes extending most of its length, often in a pair) are not directly predictable from the constituents. Cross-linguistically the notion exists but labels and specific features vary, so the expression gives a partial cue but requires prior exposure for full meaning.
Etymology
The name French door comes from doors used in France that were mostly glass and opened onto gardens. These tall doors with many glass panes let light and views into the house, so the name came to mean 'a door with glass panes'.