Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004

} I have a question about "half door" in the following text.
}
} The refrigerator was a little half job with a tiny yellowish light like
} a single bulb on a Christmas tree.
} [omission}
} I found$B!!(Ba note Scotch-taped to the refrigerator door. Half door.
}
} Half door of a half sized refrigerator? Does it mean the refrigerator
} has two half doors and the door on which a note is taped is one of the
} two? Or can you use the word half door  for the small full door which is
} put on a  half sized refrigerator?

It looks to be an afterthought, referring again to the small size of the
refrigerator.  It's not something you'd usually do; it's just underlining
a point, in case anyone missed it.  That's how I'd take it.

On a big refrigerator, you might well have two doors, one on top (or
bottom or one side or the other) for the freezer and one for the
refrigerator proper.  But I'd be surprised to see either called a "half
door".  But one might be called a "freezer door".