barn door
Britishnoun
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the door of a barn
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informal a target so large that it cannot be missed
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photog television theatre an adjustable flap over the front of a studio or theatre lamp
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
If the NFL had a visage, it would be Ditka’s, with his thick hair, rugged mustache and a nose that looked hit by a barn door.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
He called the mayor's measures "palliative", and a case of "closing the barn door after the horse has bolted".
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2025
But ultimately, “access to pasture” means just that—the barn door is open, says Kestrel Burcham, a policy director at the Cornucopia Institute, a nonprofit consumer watchdog group.
From National Geographic ● Feb. 16, 2024
“It’s always better to have a lock on the barn door than to go chase the horse once it’s out,” he said in an interview.
From New York Times ● Dec. 15, 2022
When I was at last backing her into the shafts, Dad called me over to the barn door.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
