Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The yard in front of the door of a house.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A yard about the door of a house.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A yard in front of a house or around the door of a house.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun the yard near the front or back door of a house

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a yard outside the front or rear door of a house

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

door +‎ yard

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Examples

  • Yes | No | Report from ray wrote 1 year 21 weeks ago ya might be a redneck if yer dooryard is paved with empty, .22 hulls (and you emptied them there, true), also if you can make an ole SShot shotgun bark fast as others shoot their ole 97's (and it doesn't bother ya the least that it's a wire twist barrel, after all thats whut lite loads were made for ..

    You Might Be a Redneck Gun Nut If . . . 2008

  • Her little face was like the pansies that used to grow in mother's dooryard; and a dooryard is the place for pansies, not a stage.

    It, and Other Stories Gouverneur Morris 1914

  • The lawn or "dooryard," should be the best kept ground on the place.

    Rural Architecture Being a Complete Description of Farm Houses, Cottages, and Out Buildings Lewis Falley Allen 1845

  • His dooryard is a picture, while the weeds sometimes choke his garden. "

    Winning the Wilderness Margaret Hill McCarter 1899

  • Contemporary photos show a nondescript, unkempt home, not a “big, rambling, orchard-embowered house” with a dooryard neat enough to eat off.

    Land of Green Gables 2008

  • I sat on a bench at the edge of the erstwhile dooryard and listened to warblers.

    Land of Green Gables 2008

  •     He can hear his mother telling him once, as she pulled weeds in the dooryard: You mind you be careful what you wish for, boy, cause you might get it ... but more likely you'll get something else.

    Hotel Chelsea - Intercut 8 2010

  • William led Rose out of the woods into the dooryard, and saw Sarah sitting on the steps of the porch, her chin in her hands, looking quite glum.

    Dragon Warrior Janet Chapman 2010

  • William led Rose out of the woods into the dooryard, and saw Sarah sitting on the steps of the porch, her chin in her hands, looking quite glum.

    Dragon Warrior Janet Chapman 2010

  • Squinting against the array of floodlights lighting up the dooryard like high noon, Maddy swung the truck in a wide circle, stopped it right beside the porch steps, and shut off the engine.

    Dragon Warrior Janet Chapman 2010

Comments

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  • It was the first time she had been out of her own dooryard in several years, but she didn't enjoy the April drive.

    —James Thurber, 1952, 'Daguerreotype of a Lady', in The Thurber Album

    OED marks this as U.S. and has examples going back to c.1764.

    July 10, 2008

  • A yard outside the door. A dooryard. Fancy.

    July 10, 2008