GATEKEEPER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does gatekeeper mean? 

• GATEKEEPER (noun)
  The noun GATEKEEPER has 2 senses:

1. someone who controls access to something

2. someone who guards an entrance

  Familiarity information: GATEKEEPER used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GATEKEEPER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone who controls access to something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Context example:

there are too many gatekeepers between the field officers and the chief

Hypernyms ("gatekeeper" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Someone who guards an entrance

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

door guard; doorkeeper; doorman; gatekeeper; hall porter; ostiary; porter

Hypernyms ("gatekeeper" is a kind of...):

guard (a person who keeps watch over something or someone)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "gatekeeper"):

commissionaire (a uniformed doorman)

night porter (a porter on duty during the night)

ticket collector; ticket taker (someone who is paid to admit only those who have purchased tickets)

 Context examples 

Ice shelves are the gatekeepers for glaciers flowing from Antarctica toward the ocean.

(Antarctica’s Larsen B Ice Shelf Nearing Its Final Act, NASA)

Cells have receptors on their surface that serve as gatekeepers to transmit signals between the outside and inside.

(Structural states of a brain receptor revealed, NIH)

Additionally, afatinib inhibits the EGFR T790M gatekeeper mutation which is resistant to treatment with first-generation EGFR inhibitors.

(Afatinib, NCI Thesaurus)

New research identifies an unexpected process that acts as a key gatekeeper in regulating methane emissions from these freshwater environments.

(Methane-eating microorganisms help regulate emissions from wetlands, NSF)

Upon administration, ALK inhibitor CH542480 binds to and inhibits ALK kinase, ALK fusion proteins as well as the gatekeeper mutation ALKL1196M known as one of the mechanisms of acquired resistance to small-molecule kinase inhibitors.

(ALK Inhibitor CH5424802, NCI Thesaurus)

An interview with a surly gatekeeper and a surlier foreman, both of whom were appeased with the coin of the realm, put me on the track of Bloxam; he was sent for on my suggesting that I was willing to pay his day's wages to his foreman for the privilege of asking him a few questions on a private matter.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)