doorstep

Etymology

From door + step.

noun

1. An outside step leading up to the door of a building, usually a home.
   Ailie was standing by the doorstep as he came down the road, and her heart stood still with joy. 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide
   With a little manœuvring they contrived to meet on the doorstep which was […] in a boiling stream of passers-by, hurrying business people speeding past in a flurry of fumes and dust in the bright haze. 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 10, in The China Governess
2. (figurative) One's immediate neighbourhood or locality.
   They want to build the prison right on our doorstep; it will only be half a mile away and being that close scares me.
   As a Hitchin signalman once pointed out to me, when a regulating quandary arises concerning a fast-moving Class A train there is no time to consult Control and get their answer before the express is on one's doorstep. 1962 May, G. Freeman Allen, “Traffic control on the Great Northern Line”, in Modern Railways, page 343
   Milk from the Eden Valley could be on London doorsteps the next morning. Limestone and agricultural lime from the Ribble Valley and gypsum from further north could at last be transported long distances by the trainload. The railway had been driven along, over and through the valuable substances that were on its doorstep, much akin to the situation in Britain's coalfields. November 17 2021, Mark Rand, “Reconnecting rail freight to S&C quarries”, in RAIL, number 944, page 52
3. (UK, informal) A thick slice, especially of bread.
   I cut myself a doorstep of bread with masses of butter and went along to see Romanov while I was eating it. 2003, Diana Wynne Jones, The Merlin Conspiracy, P 241

verb

1. (intransitive) To visit one household after another to solicit sales, charitable donations, political support, etc.
2. (transitive, journalism) To corner somebody for an unexpected interview.
   Throughout her time in journalism, she doorstepped politicians, the child of a politician, crime victims, armed robbers, murderers, suspected murderers... 1998, Emily O'Reilly, Veronica Guerin: The Life and Death of a Crime Reporter
   Surprisingly few people refused to talk, even those I doorstepped or telephoned out of the blue. 2006, Denis O'Hearn, Nothing But an Unfinished Song