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dooryard

dooryard

3 7.9
An area just outside a house door where people walk and plant things
  • noun
  • /ˈdʊrˌjɑrd/
  • Archaic
translation icon : patio
  • It was supper time then; the road and the dooryards were deserted.
  • dooryard gardens
  • Last in the dooryard

Examples

  • In a dooryard near the end of the line of cabins, old Toby

    Fiction book (1998)
  • Lita fell asleep again, and we three women sat in chairs that Janie dragged out into the dooryard, talking idly of nothing much, taking the sun.

    Fiction book (1998)
  • Even on Judith Street, the women try to make the dooryards pretty.

    Academic text (1993)
  • She included the flowers of the woods and fields, the dooryards and gardens.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • Flowers grew in abundance, spilling out of window boxes, baskets, pots, and dooryards.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • Harkers' cow barn loomed at the curve of the road; beyond it, the windmill marked the dooryard of the house.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • A mother hen and her fluffy chicks are scratching in the dooryard when Zhu Li arrives home.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • Dooryards were ablaze with phlox, marigolds, hollyhocks, and delphinium.

    Fiction book (1999)
  • Eenie Weaver has the fanciest dooryard, with a fine blue hydrangea in a tub... and love-entangled trailing from old pots suspended from the ceiling.

    Academic text (1993)
  • In the afternoons, they sit in the dooryard, framed by dark rose hollyhocks so tall they bend from the tops.

Synonyms

yard
vsdooryard
651 1.0

An area of land next to a building, often fenced, used for animals, work or play

is the area immediately outside the front or back door of a house

How Big

yard
651 1.0
front yard
  • US
62 1.0
dooryard
  • Archaic
3 7.9
porch
426 1.0
stoop
  • US
37 3.9
doorstep
126 1.0

Surface Forms

dooryard singular
dooryards plural

Morphology

dooryard = door + yard (transparent) = door + yard

The meaning is a straightforward combination of 'door' + 'yard' meaning the yard immediately adjacent to a door.

Etymology

Dooryard is a simple compound of door and yard, so it literally means the 'area by the door'. That's why a dooryard is the small yard or open space right outside a house's front or back door.