show someone the door
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to ask someone to leave
Literally: to physically show the exit
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
CELTIC boss Liam Brady has offered Derry boy Nigel Melly a one year extension to his contract — just weeks after showing him the door.
She could just see the raised eyebrows, the exchange of bemused glances, and the shrugs which said, So what? before they politely but firmly showed her the door.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
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Common questions
What does “show someone the door” mean?
to ask someone to leave Literally: to physically show the exit
Is “show someone the door” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.
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