revolving door

noun

1. an entrance door for excluding drafts from the interior of a building, usually consisting of four rigid leaves set in the form of a cross and rotating about a central, vertical pivot in the doorway.
2. Informal.
   1. a company, institution, or organization with a high turnover of personnel or members.
   2. a legal, medical, or other system or agency that discharges criminals, patients, etc., in the shortest possible time and without adequate attention or consideration.

revolving door

noun

1. a door that rotates about a central vertical axis, esp one with four leaves arranged at right angles to each other, thereby excluding draughts
2. 1. a tendency to change personnel on a frequent basis
   2. ( as modifier )

      a revolving-door band

3. 1. the hiring of former government employees by private companies with which they had dealings when they worked for the government
   2. ( as modifier )

      revolving-door consultancies

Other Words From

• re·volving-door adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of revolving door¹

First recorded in 1905–10

Example Sentences

The fact that the principal position has become a revolving door, preventing any one leader from gaining traction and exerting a consistent presence at the school.

From Voice of San Diego

Hiring is important, she said, but those new hires may head back through the revolving door if they find themselves in a culture that doesn’t support them.

From Digiday

Reid’s sense of pacing is sublime as she introduces and dispenses with a revolving door of characters to approximate the chaos of a rager where sloshed A-listers couple up in the closets and waiters pass trays of cocaine.

From Washington Post

Their efforts have opened a revolving door between public and private interests.

From Voice of San Diego

The revolving door of leadership at Lincoln is nothing new to southeastern San Diego community members.

From Voice of San Diego

His last few years have been a revolving door of corruption, scandal, resignation, and reinstatement.

From The Daily Beast

That revolving-door thing is a cancer at the heart of American democracy.

From The Daily Beast

Rich defendant, revolving door attorneys, last-minute plea deals… cue the brooding theme music and time-lapse photography.

From The Daily Beast

A revolving door of employees is getting furloughed … and then un-furloughed … and then re-furloughed again.

From The Daily Beast

She said the rescue center has quickly become a revolving door for people who are hoping to reunite with their pets.

From The Daily Beast

The damp cold of a March night closed chillingly around the two, as they passed through the revolving door into the street.

From Project Gutenberg

An instant later the party was feeding itself into the inappeasable hopper of the revolving door, and so disappeared.

From Project Gutenberg

Fearful that he would address me if I delayed longer I gathered courage anew and entered through a most alarming revolving door.

From Project Gutenberg

Joan, feeling safe in the revolving door, watched while Tim approached the stamp window.

From Project Gutenberg

As far as he knew, no one but Helen, Doctor Bimble and himself was aware of the existence of the revolving door, and the tunnel.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• bar
• door
• doorway
• exit
• fence
• port