OPEN DOOR • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Open door

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/ˈoʊpən dɔr/ Listen

noun

Open door n.

Open or free admission to all; hospitable welcome; free opportunity. "She of the open soul and open door, With room about her hearth for all mankind."

In modern diplomacy, opportunity for political and commercial intercourse open to all upon equal terms, esp. with reference to a nation whose policy is wholly or partially fixed by nations foreign to itself, or to territory newly acquired by a conquering nation. In this sense, often used adjectively, as, open-door system, open-door policy, etc. "The steps taken by Britain to maintain the open door have so far proved to be perfectly futile."

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Etymology of 'Open door'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Open door" Quotes from Famous Books

... thundered his answer, while the others nodded, solemnly and in tune, like a shop-window of flexible toys, comic mandarins and judges and ducks and clowns, set quivering by a breeze from the open door: ...

— Main Street • Sinclair Lewis

... fisherman and his wife sat in the narrow arc of the firelight, and beside them, on a deerskin, their little son basked in the genial warmth. The breeze through the open door fanned ...

— Sea-Dogs All! - A Tale of Forest and Sea • Tom Bevan

... at the open door to receive him when he came up stairs: she had wholly forgotten the embarrassment of ...

— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 15, - No. 86, February, 1875 • Various

... in the library of his big house, a house which seems so like some beautiful instrument lacking the touch of the master hand to draw forth its sweetest and best, the sound of little dancing feet can be heard through the half-open door, and a sweet ...

— Caps and Capers - A Story of Boarding-School Life • Gabrielle E. Jackson

... vanished, her black figure had melted in the darkness of the open door. For some time Fyne said nothing; and I thought of the girl going upstairs, appearing before the man. Were they looking at each other in silence and feeling they were alone in the world as lovers should at the moment of meeting? But that fine forgetfulness ...

— Chance • Joseph Conrad

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