indoors
Americanadverb
adverb
Etymology
Origin of indoors
1780–90; indoor + -s 1
Explanation
If you're indoors, you're inside a house or other building. On the hottest, most sweltering summer days, you might decide to stay indoors where it's cool. During a typical school day, elementary school students spend most of their time indoors, reading, writing, doing math, singing songs, and painting pictures. When they leave the indoors and go outside for recess, you can say they're outdoors. Indoors, first used around 1800 (sometimes attributed to George Washington), comes from indoor, a shortened form of within door.
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.
People living or working in coastal areas were advised to take extra care during windy or stormy weather, including staying indoors as much as possible.
From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2026
It urged families to keep children indoors and to use "respiratory protection" if going outside.
From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2026
The public got the message, with some parents keeping their children indoors while police and herpetologists scoured that backyard for the snake.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
“If you find a bat indoors or think you may have had contact with one, contact your medical provider or Public Health right away.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
I stayed indoors, memorizing algebraic equations, trying to live as I had before—to imagine my life at the university as disconnected from my life on Buck’s Peak.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
