barn door

See also: barndoor

English

Alternative forms

• barndoor, barn-door

Etymology

barn +‎ door

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

barn door (plural barn doors)

1. The large door of a barn.
2. (humorous) Something large enough that a miss ought to be impossible.

   Buying a barn door won't help your tennis game.

3. (cricket) A player who blocks every ball.
4. (euphemistic, humorous) The groin area of a pair of pants.

   Somebody forgot to close his barn door again!

5. (climbing) An off-balance pivot on two points of contact.

Related terms

• barn doors (lighting equipment)
• close the barn door after the horse has bolted
• not be able to hit the broad side of a barn

Translations

door of a barn

• Finnish: ladonovi
• German: Scheunentor (de) n
• Polish: drzwi stodoły pl

Verb

barn door (third-person singular simple present barn doors, present participle barn dooring, simple past and past participle barn doored)

1. (transitive, filmmaking) To apply or adjust the barn doors as part of lighting.
   • 2011, Joe McNally, Sketching Light:

     Which might mean shaping it, gelling it, snooting it, barn dooring it, and putting it on a stand or a clamp. Maybe taking the dome diffuser off. Perhaps zooming it. Oh my. And you thought you were just taking a picture.

   • 2012, E. P. J. Tozer, Broadcast Engineer's Reference Book, page 518:

     These backlights are placed in the ideal position, directly in line with each cross camera lens, barn doored to light only the back of the participants.