Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A piece of wood or stone placed beneath a door; a doorsill.
- noun Either end of an airport runway.
- noun The place or point of beginning; the outset.
- noun The point that must be exceeded to begin producing a given effect or result or to elicit a response.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The plank, stone, or piece of timber which lies at the bottom of a door, or under it, particularly the door of a dwelling-house, church, temple, or other building; a door-sill; hence, entrance; gate; door.
- noun Hence, the place or point of entering or beginning; outset: as, he is now at the threshold of his argument.
- noun In psychology, the limit below which a given stimulus,' or the difference between two stimuli, ceases to be perceptible. Compare
schwelle .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The plank, stone, or piece of timber, which lies under a door, especially of a dwelling house, church, temple, or the like; the doorsill; hence, entrance; gate; door.
- noun Fig.: The place or point of entering or beginning, entrance; outset.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The bottom-most part of a
doorway that one crosses to enter; asill . - noun by extension An
entrance - noun The start of the landing area of a
runway - noun engineering The quantitative point at which an action is triggered, especially a
lower limit - noun The
wage orsalary at whichincome tax becomes due - noun The
outset of an action or project - noun The point where one
mentally orphysically isvulnerable in response toprovocation or to particular things in general. As inemotions ,stress , orpain . - noun The point of
beginning orentry
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the entrance (the space in a wall) through which you enter or leave a room or building; the space that a door can close
- noun the smallest detectable sensation
- noun a region marking a boundary
- noun the sill of a door; a horizontal piece of wood or stone that forms the bottom of a doorway and offers support when passing through a doorway
- noun the starting point for a new state or experience
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Can't Post | Private Reply ah! so it was you, bubinski's better half. i have a very high physical pain threshold but my pecuniary threshold is low. i would have been able to endure 10 minutes more of the former to avoid the pain of the latter.
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Can't Post | Private Reply ah! so it was you, bubinski's better half. i have a very high physical pain threshold but my pecuniary threshold is low. i would have been able to endure 10 minutes more of the former to avoid the pain of the latter.
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Can't Post | Private Reply ah! so it was you, bubinski's better half. i have a very high physical pain threshold but my pecuniary threshold is low. i would have been able to endure 10 minutes more of the former to avoid the pain of the latter.
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Can't Post | Private Reply ah! so it was you, bubinski's better half. i have a very high physical pain threshold but my pecuniary threshold is low. i would have been able to endure 10 minutes more of the former to avoid the pain of the latter.
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Can't Post | Private Reply ah! so it was you, bubinski's better half. i have a very high physical pain threshold but my pecuniary threshold is low. i would have been able to endure 10 minutes more of the former to avoid the pain of the latter.
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Can't Post | Private Reply ah! so it was you, bubinski's better half. i have a very high physical pain threshold but my pecuniary threshold is low. i would have been able to endure 10 minutes more of the former to avoid the pain of the latter.
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Can't Post | Private Reply ah! so it was you, bubinski's better half. i have a very high physical pain threshold but my pecuniary threshold is low. i would have been able to endure 10 minutes more of the former to avoid the pain of the latter.
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Can't Post | Private Reply ah! so it was you, bubinski's better half. i have a very high physical pain threshold but my pecuniary threshold is low. i would have been able to endure 10 minutes more of the former to avoid the pain of the latter.
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After a certain threshold (what the threshold is for a specific country varies) there are dramatic and lasting unemployment effects.
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Not all scientists agree this threshold is a sensible target for politicians though.
ruzuzu commented on the word threshold
"WORD HISTORY: Perhaps the tradition of carrying the bride over the threshold is dying out, but knowledge of the custom persists, leading one to wonder about the -hold or the thresh- in the word threshold. Scholars are still wondering about the last part of the word, but the thresh- can be explained. It is related to the word thresh, which refers to an agricultural process. This process of beating the stems and husks of grain or cereal plants to separate the grain or seeds from the straw was at one time done with the feet of oxen or human beings. Thus, the Germanic word ·therskan, or by the switching of sounds called metathesis, ·threskan, meant 'thresh' and 'tread.' This association with the feet is probably retained in Old English therscold or threscold (Modern English threshold), 'sill of a door (over which one treads).'"
--The American Heritage Dictionary
September 29, 2010
grandpa27 commented on the word threshold
I have been chasing "threshold" since I saw a reference to it in connection with threshing where, without citation, the word was defined as a board placed across the door opening to keep the grain in the barn where it was threshed on the barn floor. I also remembered a threshold board 24 inches high to keep his cows in when the door was opened. This threshold board would also keep cattle in when used for thrIeshing.
July 6, 2015