door dwell
n. The amount of time it takes for the door to close after having boarded an elevator.
Examples
1999
[Elevator passengers] suffer forms of time distortion that seem peculiarly attached to the elevator-riding experience. "Door dwell," for example, refers to the time it takes the elevator doors to close once you've boarded. "Door dwell" typically lasts two to four seconds. Do you reach for the door-close button anyway? Would you still reach for it if you knew that most building managers disable the buttons out of fear of trapped limbs and lawsuits?
—John Clark Keller, “Squeezing Every Second,” Austin American-Statesman, October 04, 1999
1999
Once on board, our antsiness only intensifies as we wait for the door to close. How long? "Door dwell," as the engineers call it, tends to be set at two to four seconds.
—James Gleick, Faster, Pantheon, August 17, 1999
1991 (earliest)
The present invention is directed to controlling the door dwell time of an elevator car door based on traffic conditions.
—Venkataramana Sarma Pullela & Zuhair S. Bahjat, “Controlling door dwell time,” Otis Elevator Company (Patent application), October 16, 1991
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