OPEN DOOR

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does open door mean? 

• OPEN DOOR (noun)
  The noun OPEN DOOR has 2 senses:

1. the policy of granting equal trade opportunities to all countries

2. freedom of access

  Familiarity information: OPEN DOOR used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OPEN DOOR (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The policy of granting equal trade opportunities to all countries

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

open-door policy; open door

Hypernyms ("open door" is a kind of...):

national trading policy; trade policy (a government's policy controlling foreign trade)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Freedom of access

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Context example:

he maintained an open door for all employees

Hypernyms ("open door" is a kind of...):

door (anything providing a means of access (or escape))

 Context examples 

Martin opened it with a premonition of disaster, and read it standing at the open door when he had received it from the postman.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The Professor was the first to move forward, and stepped into the open door.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

"Good-by, Tess," he said, standing at the open door.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Peeping into the open door, they saw a sight which sent them flying, with white faces, into the village.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Through the half-open door I heard a high, petulant, penetrating voice.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There was a street on each side and an open door on both, which made the large, low room pretty clear to see in, in spite of clouds of tobacco smoke.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

“There is the card-room, Rodney,” said my uncle, as we passed an open door on our way out.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A little before dark I passed a farm-house, at the open door of which the farmer was sitting, eating his supper of bread and cheese.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

You can imagine my surprise when, as I looked down this corridor, I saw a glimmer of light coming from the open door of the library.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Springing forward, he hurled his unwieldy weapon at brother Ambrose, and, as desk and monk clattered on to the floor together, he sprang through the open door and down the winding stair.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)