doormat
nounUK /ˈdɔːˌmæt/ · CA, US /ˈdɔɹˌmæt/
Etymology From door + mat.
1
A coarse mat at the entrance to a house, upon which one wipes one's shoes.
- Wipe your shoes on the doormat before you start plodding around in the house.
- Mr. Simpson adds that the station at Stanmore appears practically unchanged from the time of its opening, even to the L.N.W.R. rubber doormat, which "shows no signs of wearing out."1942 September and October, “Notes and News: The Stanmore Branch”, in Railway Magazine, page 311:
1 more example
- Dimple glanced at an expensive-looking doormat with the words ‘LOSE THE SHOES’ woven into it and wondered why anyone would bother spending so much money on something people were going to wipe their feet on.2022, Candice Carty-Williams, People Person, Trapeze, pages 257–258:
2
Derogatory, Figuratively Someone who habitually yields to others' demands or mistreatment, failing to assert their own rights or interests.
- He's such a doormat, he lets everyone walk all over him.
- If you flipped through certain magazines at this time you could be forgiven for thinking that there was no right way to be a woman, only wrong ones — bimbo or frump, slut or prude, shrew or doormat.2022 March 31, Alexis Soloski, “Why the Sudden Urge to Reconsider Famous Women?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN: