A door is a movable structure used to open and close an entrance, typically consisting of a panel that swings on hinges or that slides or spins inside a space.
When open, doors admit people, animals, ventilation, and light. The door is used to control the physical atmosphere within a space by enclosing the air drafts, so that interiors may be more effectively heated or cooled. Doors are significant in preventing the spread of fire. They act as a barrier to noise. Most doors are equipped with locking mechanisms to allow entrance to certain people and keep out others.
Doors are used to screen areas of a building for aesthetics, keeping formal and utility areas separate. Doors also have an aesthetic role in creating an impression of what lies beyond. Doors are often symbolically endowed with ritual purposes, and the guarding or receiving of the keys to a door, or being granted access to a door can have special significance. Similarly, doors and doorways frequently appear in metaphorical or allegorical situations, literature and the arts, often as a portent of change.
Read more about Door: Applications, Design and Styles, History, Door-related Accidents
Famous quotes containing the word door:
“Opiate. An unlocked door in the prison of Identity. It leads into the jail yard.”
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914)
“He sits, strong and blunt as a Celtic cross,
Clearly used to silence and an armchair:
Tonight the wife and children will be quiet
At slammed door and smoker’s cough in the hall.”
—Seamus Heaney (b. 1939)
“It’s true, as Marya Mannes says: “No one believes [a woman’s] time to be sacred. A man at his desk in a room with a closed door is a man at work. A woman at a desk in any room is available.””
—Lillian Breslow Rubin (20th century)