noun
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a mat, placed at the entrance to a building, for wiping dirt from shoes
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informal a person who offers little resistance to ill-treatment by others
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of doormat
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.
See Examples For:
A note the attackers left under his doormat read "No Data Centers."
From Barron's ● May 19, 2026
Depending on where you are reading this, your doormat may have been carpeted with colourful leaflets for weeks and your TV and social media feeds chocca with political promises.
From BBC ● May 3, 2026
Then he transformed Indiana, a longtime Big Ten doormat, into a national championship contender.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 30, 2025
Most humans would rather be a doormat than a battering ram, regardless of the urgency or circumstance.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 24, 2025
“Well, she’s not your daughter, Connie. She hasn’t walked all over you like a doormat for a decade. We’ve got another child to think about.”
From "Paper Towns" by John Green
But at the college level, the powerhouses typically remained the powerhouses while schools like Indiana were their doormats.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 18, 2026
A BBC News investigation has found that leaseholders have had to pay hundreds of pounds for services such as key-cutting and the cleaning of doormats and council bins.
From BBC ● Nov. 21, 2024
Along with, say, People, Time and National Geographic, it has long lined the dentist offices, neighbors’ doormats and coffee tables of your life.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 1, 2023
The business offers potentially higher margins for Amazon than its main consumer business, as making a smaller number of bulk deliveries is cheaper, per unit, than getting millions of small parcels to individuals' doormats.
From Reuters ● Apr. 20, 2023
“They’re not doormats, but they know they’re up against kids who have had more resources. I’ve seen it. They feel intimidated sometimes, even by kids from Pennsbury.”
From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove
Definitions 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.
