doorstone

[ dawr-stohn, dohr- ]

noun

1. a stone serving as the sill of a doorway.

Word History and Origins

Origin of doorstone¹

First recorded in 1755–65; door + stone

Example Sentences

Since a sprig of Southernwood had played a romantic part in their courtship, each planted a bush at the side of the broad doorstone; and the husband, William, often thrust a bit of this Lad's-love from the flourishing bushes in the buttonhole of his woollen shirt, for he fancied the fresh scent of the leaves.

From Project Gutenberg

It would be impossible to express in words Hetty's emotions when she crossed her threshold to set her shining milk tins in the morning sunlight, and saw on one side of the doorstone a yawning hole where had grown for ten years William's bunch of Lad's-love.

From Project Gutenberg

A worn hearthstone and doorstone, surrounded now by green grass and shadowed by dying lilacs, still show the exact spot where once stood her humble walls, where once “her garden smiled.”

From Project Gutenberg

The talent of a Webster, the genius of an Emerson, the frailty of an unacknowledged child left on the doorstone at night, to die next month in the almshouse, all have their place in the large cradle of society, whose coverlet wraps them all,—the senator, the poet, and the fool.

From Project Gutenberg

I have such a one for my doorstone at Woodchuck Lodge.

From Project Gutenberg