innyard

plural innyards · alternative inn yard · alternative inn-yard

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.

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   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.

   1839, Charles Lever, chapter 26, in The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer, Dublin: W. Curry, page 199

   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.

   1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable and Company, […], →OCLC

   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.

   1943, Graham Greene, chapter 7, in The Ministry of Fear, Vintage, published 2004