Crossword clues for doorkeeper
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Doorkeeper \Door"keep`er\, n. One who guards the entrance of a house or apartment; a porter; a janitor.
Wiktionary
n. The person in charge of an entryway, sometimes just a doorman, sometimes something more.
WordNet
n. an official doorkeeper as in a courtroom or legislative chamber [syn: usher]
the lowest of the minor Holy Orders in the unreformed Western Church but now suppressed by the Roman Catholic Church [syn: ostiary, ostiarius]
someone who guards an entrance [syn: doorman, door guard, hall porter, porter, gatekeeper, ostiary]
Usage examples of "doorkeeper".
A man from the country comes to this doorkeeper and requests admittance to the Law.
Since the gate to the Law stands open as always, and the doorkeeper steps aside, the man bends down to look through the gate into the interior.
The doorkeeper gives him a stool and lets him sit down at the side of the door.
He asks time and again to be admitted and wearies the doorkeeper with his entreaties.
Over the many years, the man observes the doorkeeper almost incessantly.
The doorkeeper conveyed the crucial information only when it could no longer be of use to the man.
One could almost argue that the doorkeeper exceeded his duty by holding out to the man the prospect of a possible future entry.
And indeed, many commentators on the text are surprised that the doorkeeper intimated it at all, for he appears to love precision and the strict fulfillment of his duty.
But certain other elements enter into the basic character of the doorkeeper which are quite favorable to the person seeking to enter, and which, in spite of everything, help us understand how and why the doorkeeper might exceed his duty somewhat by the intimation of that future possibility.
At any rate the figure of the doorkeeper that emerges is quite different from your perception of him.
To this it may be replied that he might well have been named a doorkeeper by a shout from within, and at any rate could not have progressed far into the interior, since he is unable to bear the sight of even the third doorkeeper.
It can be assumed that for many years, as long as it takes for a man to mature, his service has been an empty formality, for it is said that a man comes, that is, a mature man, so that the doorkeeper had to wait a long time to fulfill his duty, and in fact had to wait as long as the man wished, who after all came of his own free will.
And it is constantly emphasized that the doorkeeper apparently realizes none of this.
But nothing striking is seen in this, for according to this opinion, the doorkeeper exists in an even greater state of deception with regard to his office.
Opinions vary as to whether the doorkeeper intends the announcement that he is going to shut the gate merely as an answer, or to emphasize his devotion to duty, or because he wants to arouse remorse and sorrow in the man at the last moment.