latchkey

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a key used to open the latch of an outside door

   He let himself into the silent house with his latchkey.

A compound of latch + key, recorded from the early nineteenth century for a key carried by someone able to enter a house independently. It later became attributive in latchkey child, a child who returns to an empty home while caregivers are at work.

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