leave the door open meaning?

Question

What is the meaning of "leave the door open" idiom?

Answer 1

 

leave the door open - Examples:

1)  It could leave the door open to some kind of negotiated deal.
2)  Youngstown State University had better leave the door open to voluntary pay cuts or unpaid furloughs from administrative and nonunion employees.
3)  I will still leave the door open for Nintendo to recapture my heart and imagination with another console.
4)  To be honest, I thought he was going to kind of leave the door open for it to be my decision, what I wanted to do.
5)  The amendment may leave the door open for modest increases.
6)  If you insist on a Rubio then you leave the door open for a future Obama.
7)  Sometimes, we may be inclined to leave the door open -- either to leave options open for ourselves or to soften the blow of drastic news.
8)  Bernanke did leave the door open to a monetary policy shift.
9)  Leave the door open for him to tell you what happened.
10)  So the only thing I might add to Captain's advice is to leave the door open for the BFs to see and understand their own denial.
11)  Indeed, Holder's Monday speech at Northwestern University seemed to leave the door open.
12)  He also seemed to leave the door open to tax hikes on the upper income.
13)  I want to solve this use case problem and leave the door open to solve many more other (maybe currently still unknown) problems.
14)  He appeared to implicitly leave the door open to raising revenue by broadening the tax base.
15)  If candidates refuse to answer questions, they leave the door open to speculation and accusation.
16)  But, she appeared to leave the door open for a possible eventual return.
17)  Nonetheless, this selection process does leave the door open for interpreters to argue for democracy.
18)  Mention that you would like to leave the door open for the future, when circumstances may have changed.
19)  These are all legitimate, but nonetheless leave the door open to copying and making available a huge panoply of printed materials.
20)  It is my hope, however, that you would at least leave the door open for forgiveness.
 
 
 

Answer 2

leave the door open - Gerund Form:

Leaving the door open during negotiations is a good strategy.
 

Answer 3

leave the door open - Usage:

 
formal<-----------X----|--------------->informal
 

Answer 4

Idiom Scenario 2:

Two friends are talking ...

Friend 1:  How are your divorce settlement talks going?
Friend 2:  OK, I guess.  We are having trouble agreeing on what to do with the house.
Friend 1:  Where are things at now?
Friend 2: Well, we couldn't reach an agreement on the house so we both decided to leave the door open for further discussion.
Friend 1:  That's great.  You and your wife can talk more.

Answer 5

Idiom Scenario 1:

Two colleagues are talking during a break in a negotiation session ...

Colleague 1:  I think the talks are going well so far.
 Colleague 2:  We did hit a couple of contentious issues that we still need to resolve.
Colleague 1:  Yes we did but we did leave the door open to further discussion.
Colleague 2:  Good.  Then we can hope that the other side will use this break time to reassess their position and talk more when we return to negotiations.

Answer 6

Idiom Definition:

"leave the door open "

arrange circumstances such that further discussion or action is possible and encouraged

 
Synonyms: attainable, available, door's always open, employable, exposed, getable, handy, near, obtainable, open, operative, possible, practicable, public, reachable, susceptible, unrestricted, usable, acceptant, acceptive, accessible, alert, amenable, approachable, bright, favorable, friendly, hospitable, influenceable, interested, observant, open, open to suggestions, open-minded, perceptive, persuadable, pushover, quick on the uptake, ready, recipient, responsive, sensitive, suggestible, susceptible, swayable, sympathetic, welcoming, well-disposed