Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun An upright post on which a gate is hung or against which it closes.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One of the side-posts that support a gate.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A post to which a gate is hung; -- called also swinging post or hinging post.
  • noun A post against which a gate closes; -- called also shutting post.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a vertical post from which a gate is hung/attached.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun either of two posts that bound a gate

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • Consider the remarkable moment in Michael Ondaatje's "The English Patient" when Katherine ends her affair with Count Almasy: "Her head sweeps away from him and hits the side of the gatepost."

    In Fiction, Opposites Attract Jennifer Vanderbes 2011

  • Between you, me and the lichen-covered gatepost, I have been busily putting together a portfolio of pictures that demonstrate John Piper's maxim 'Pleasing Decay'.

    Rust Never Sleeps Peter Ashley 2008

  • The Northern gatepost carries a statue of St Anne, who, being the mother of Mary, is traditionally the figure in whom the Old Testament ends.

    Prince Charles Reflects On 'Sacred Geometry' The Huffington Post News Team 2010

  • On the gatepost of that door Christ is depicted again, carrying in his hands the book of his message to the world, his New Testament.

    Prince Charles Reflects On 'Sacred Geometry' The Huffington Post News Team 2010

  • Just between you, me, and the gatepost, Professor, when those cheeky fellows care to put their crafty minds to it, they can also become the finest thieves and bandits in the world.

    In The Shadow of The Cypress Thomas Steinbeck 2010

  • In a city park next to a college building on a recent afternoon, "Death to Arabs" was scrawled on a gatepost.

    Allegations of racism and questions about an Israeli town's character Joel Greenberg 2010

  • Just between you, me, and the gatepost, Professor, when those cheeky fellows care to put their crafty minds to it, they can also become the finest thieves and bandits in the world.

    In The Shadow of The Cypress Thomas Steinbeck 2010

  • Lance experienced such a wave of nostalgia and longing at the sight of that T-shirt that he had to hold on to the concrete gatepost.

    Portobello Ruth Rendell 2010

  • Henry leaned out of the carriage and read the number off a brass plaque affixed to a front gatepost.

    Clockwork Angel Cassandra Clare 2010

  • She had gone to Pembridge Crescent to see where his heart attack had happened, notably to find the bell in the gatepost her son had fallen against.

    Portobello Ruth Rendell 2010

Comments

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  • I hope gateposts inhabit your land, life, and existence, literally, metaphorically, and spiritually.

    March 5, 2011