a door must either be shut or open
- a door must either be shut or open
Said of two mutually exclusive alternatives. Cf. Fr. il faut qu’une porte soit ouverte ou fermée, it is necessary that a door be open or shut.
1762 GOLDSMITH Citizen of World I. xlix. There are but the two ways; the door must either be shut, or it must be open.
1896 G. SAINTSBURY Hist. Nineteenth-Century Literature vii. Fiction..pleads in vain for detailed treatment. For all doors must be shut or open; and this door must now be shut.
1953 S. BEDFORD Sudden View I. ix. We..returned to France, the land of good sense..where a door has got to be either open or shut.
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