dooryard

noun

dooryard

noun

Etymology From door + yard.

1

Atlantic Canada, Maine the yard near the front or back door of a house

  • In the dooryard fronting an old farm-house near the white-wash’d palings, / Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green, […]1865, Walt Whitman, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d”, in Sequel to Drum-Taps: When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d and other poems:
  • "You're soft, Jane," said Miranda once; "you allers was soft, and you allers will be. If 't wa'n't for me keeping you stiffened up, I b'lieve you 'd leak out o' the house into the dooryard."1903, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm:
Derived terms
dooryard dock
Related terms
backyard, front yard, barnyard, farmyard, ambit, curtilage

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.