innyard

innyard

English

Etymology

inn +‎ yard

Noun

innyard (plural innyards)

1. The yard of an inn.
   • 1791, Ann Ward Radcliffe, The Romance of the Forest, Dublin: P. Wogan et al., Volume 2, Chapter 11, p. 8,

     [He] had scarcely left the room, when Adeline observed a party of horsemen enter the inn-yard, and she had no doubt these were the persons from whom they fled.

   • 1839, Charles Lever, The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer, Dublin: W. Curry, Chapter 26, p. 199,

     I immediately opened the door and stepped out into the inn-yard, crowded with conducteurs, grooms, and ostlers, who, I thought, looked rather surprised at seeing me emerge from the diligence.

   • #*
     1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 1, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, OCLC 688657546:

     I shall never forget the last glimpse which I had of the inn-yard and its crowd of picturesque figures, all crossing themselves, as they stood round the wide archway, with its background of rich foliage of oleander and orange trees in green tubs clustered in the centre of the yard.

   • 1943, Graham Greene, The Ministry of Fear, Vintage, 2004, Chapter 7,

     His heart beat at the sight of her, as though he were a young man and this his first assignation outside a cinema, in a Lyons Corner House . . . or in an inn yard in a country town where dances were held.