Definitions

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun same as doorstop.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A doorstop: a device for halting the motion of a door.
  • noun A gauge used in geophysics.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a stop that keeps open doors from moving

Etymologies

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Examples

  • This 534-page doorstopper is no ordinary kids 'book, for sure.

    GreenCine Daily: Sunday shorts. 2007

  • The Rebecca West doorstopper is wonderful -- her riff on the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand is brilliant -- but her quirks can get annoying; the idealization of "the Serb" and the anti-German bigotry (according to West, Goethe can be reduced to "ain't Nature grand") start to get wearying, though she usually saves the day with a lyrical description of a remote place like Lake Ohrid, or a chilling recitation of the bloody dynastic wars between the Karageorges and the whoozis, the other guys.

    The long grave already dug Matthew Guerrieri 2007

  • While I am tired of the "doorstopper" books, I felt like this story really should have been told in 2 books, so that we get more background on the characters and the world and its history.

    Review: A Darkness Forged In Fire by Chris Evans Jeff C 2008

  • While I am tired of the "doorstopper" books, I felt like this story really should have been told in 2 books, so that we get more background on the characters and the world and its history.

    Archive 2008-04-01 Jeff C 2008

  • He met with GM ad executives Jack McNulty and George Pruitt, who asked Ken to condense his "doorstopper" proposal into a brief description of the project.

    Lunch at Michael's with Ken Burns 2007

  • He met with GM ad executives Jack McNulty and George Pruitt, who asked Ken to condense his "doorstopper" proposal into a brief description of the project.

    Ken Burns: American Icon with Surprising Passions 2006

  • YANKEEOGRAPHY PINSTRIPE LEGENDS $179.99; A&E -- This doorstopper of a boxed set is handsomely made and impressively heavy.

    Michael Giltz: DVDs: Great Boxed Sets? How Sweet It Is! (Plus The Not So Sweet) Michael Giltz 2011

  • YANKEEOGRAPHY PINSTRIPE LEGENDS $179.99; A&E -- This doorstopper of a boxed set is handsomely made and impressively heavy.

    Michael Giltz: DVDs: Great Boxed Sets? How Sweet It Is! (Plus The Not So Sweet) Michael Giltz 2011

  • YANKEEOGRAPHY PINSTRIPE LEGENDS $179.99; A&E -- This doorstopper of a boxed set is handsomely made and impressively heavy.

    Michael Giltz: DVDs: Great Boxed Sets? How Sweet It Is! (Plus The Not So Sweet) Michael Giltz 2011

  • A doorstopper of a catalog covers everything from the history of the crafts movement to the more arcane aspects of weaving, woodworking, ceramics, glassmaking and furniture design, seen through the lens of the radical changes in art, society and lifestyle in postwar America.

    Coming In From the Cold Ada Louise Huxtable 2011

Comments

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  • I see confusion among the words “doorjamb,” “doorstop,” and “doorstopper.”

    “Doorjamb” refers to the upright pieces forming the frame of a door; that is, the sides of the doorway. The “jamb” component does not connote “jamming” in the sense of stuffing or wedging but is from the Latinate word for leg – “jambe.”

    A “doorstop” is a heavy object placed on the floor before a door to prevent it from swinging on its hinges. This word is commonly invoked to imply uselessness, to signify that an object has no useful quality except for mass. For example, “Since broadcast TV went to a digital format my television has become a doorstop.”

    “Doorstopper” in the publishing business is used to describe a book that is physically large. It does not necessarily imply anything about the quality of the book. Books of average or less than average weight would not serve to stop a swinging door, but a massive book will.

    I would expect that the hoary publishing usage will over time be eroded by the more popular and flippant “doorstop” and will acquire negative connotations.

    March 13, 2015