OT: help with English phrase, please!

[Gunther Heiko Hagen]

hello everyone.

Can anyone tell me what is meant by the English idiom, "push the door to" please?

Thanks.

[Graeme]

In message , Gunther Heiko Hagen writes

Shut that door! Close the door.

[NY]

It means "close the door", especially if the door is ajar (almost closed, but not quite latched).

[Andy Burns]

To shut a door which has been left partially open.

[Cursitor Doom]

Funny. I'd always thought it meant to push a door up to its jamb, but without actually closing and latching it.

[James Harris]

Yes, but possibly not to lock it. In the way I have heard it used I would say that a door which is "pushed to" would be closed but not locked. It might be to shut out a draft from an internal door, for example, and be especially in contrast to being "ajar".

There is also group alt.usage.english. Copied them in and set followups. Would be interested to hear what others think of the idiom.

[TimW]

In these parts if we are asking where something is we say 'Where's that to, then?' TW

[Bob Eager]

Me too. If a door is 'to', it's not actually closed, but there's no significant gap left.

[Bod]

Me too.

[Graham.]

That's the meaning I have always attributed to it. I'm from Lancashire, these things often turn out to be regional.

Should it be to or too?

"Shall I close the door" "No, just leave it to" (or too)

[0345.86.86.888]

How about the following?

Possible origin of the term when used as "to and fro"

[Bob Eager]

I'm from Sussex, and the same!

[Tim Streater]

Yes, I vote for this meaning, too.

[Tim Streater]

No. If you said "Push the door too", it would imply you were pushing something else too!

[Robin]

The Oxford English Dictionary gives this meaning of "to" used in that way:

"Expressing contact (cf. A. 5): So as to come close against something; esp. with vbs. forming phrases denoting shutting or closing: see the vbs. Now arch. and colloq."

It gives examples such as:

"The banging of the door, blown to by a current of wind."

In other words, as others have said, more of a sense of almost shut but not quite shut.

[James Wilkinson Sword]

Agreed. Presumably to prevent it from locking, or to allow someone to come in later carrying several pizzas, without having to operate the handle.

Same usage as "lean to", meaning say a greenhouse that leans against the house wall, but isn't joined to it.

[Richard]

Bet poor old Gunther is a tad confused by now. :)

[harry]

It's an expression used mostly in the North of England. It just means clos e the door

A lot of Northern English follows German. "Bitte machen die Tür zu" is the near equivalent.

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

Not in the superior north it doesn't. It means push the door until it is almost closed. Close the door means -------- close the door.

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

+2

It really is not all that difficult to understand.