English

Alternative forms

• darken someone's doorstep, darken someone's doorway

Verb

darken someone's door

1. (idiomatic) To arrive at the entrance of someone's residence or of another building associated with that person, especially as an unwelcome visitor.
   • 1824, Sir Walter Scott, Redgauntlet, Letter 13:

     "I'll tell you, Peter," said I, "were I my lord, and a friend or kinsman of mine should leave the town while the court was sitting, that kinsman, or be he what he liked, should never darken my door again."

   • 1885, Edith Nesbit, "The Stolen God—Lazarus to Dives" in Many Voices:

     He promised the poor His heaven,

     He loved and lived with the poor;

     He said that the rich man's shadow

     Should never darken His door.

   • 1917, Irving Bacheller, The Light in the Clearing, ch. 17:

     [T]he squire ain't sociable an' the neighbors never darken his door.

   • 2008, Valerie Wilson Wesley, Of Blood and Sorrow, ISBN 9780345492715, p. 3:

     Luckily, I'd scored some good-paying clients in the past two months along with the usual losers who darken my door and waste my time.