darken someone's door

• darken someone's doorstep, darken someone's doorway

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darken someone's door

1. (idiomatic) To arrive at someone's residence or location, especially as an unwelcome visitor.
   • 1824, Sir Walter Scott, Redgauntlet, Letter 13:

     "I'll tell you, Peter," said I, "were I my lord, and a friend or kinsman of mine should leave the town while the court was sitting, that kinsman, or be he what he liked, should never darken my door again."

   • 1885, Edith Nesbit, "The Stolen God—Lazarus to Dives" in Many Voices:

     He promised the poor His heaven,

     He loved and lived with the poor;

     He said that the rich man's shadow

     Should never darken His door.

   • 1917, Irving Bacheller, chapter 17, in The Light in the Clearing:

     [T]he squire ain't sociable an' the neighbors never darken his door.

   • 2008, Valerie Wilson Wesley, Of Blood and Sorrow‎, →ISBN, page 3:

     Luckily, I'd scored some good-paying clients in the past two months along with the usual losers who darken my door and waste my time.