English
walk-in
Noun

walk-in

  1. A facility or room which may be walked into:
    1. A relatively small room (such as a closet or pantry) or refrigerator or freezer that is spacious enough to walk into.
    2. A relatively larger room or (especially) an apartment that is entered directly, not via an intervening passage or lobby.
      a walk-in bathroom, a walk-in apartment, lived in a walk-in on Lime Street
      • 1993, Reports of Cases Decided in the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York:
        As Officer Byrne watched the front of the building he observed about ten people enter and leave a walk-in apartment unrelated to the buy and bust operation.
    3. A facility or an event that principally handles customers who do not have an appointment.
      Most teen clinics are walk-ins.
      An increasing demand for skills in niche technologies coupled with higher attrition have prompted these software services firms to organise walk-ins for technology talent too.
    4. A facility accessed on foot rather than by car, usually contrasted to drive-in.
  2. Someone who walks in (to a place, etc):
    1. A customer, job applicant or similar who visits a restaurant, medical facility, car dealership, etc. without a reservation, appointment, or referral.
      • 1996, Kazuo Nishiyama, Welcoming the Japanese visitor: insights, tips, tactics (page 85)
        An astute manager will have a table or two set aside for important regular customers or demanding walk-ins.
    2. A defector (or similar) who walks into an embassy (etc) unannounced.
      • 2007 April 10, "[//www.nytimes.com/2007/07/13/opinion/13blum.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 Who Killed Ashraf Marwan?]," The New York Times (retrieved 18 September 2015):
        Still, a rapidly formed working group of Mossad wise men debated the risk in dealing with a walk-in, a volunteer who shows up bearing gifts.
  3. A demonstration or protest in which the participants assemble outside a facility, gain media exposure, and enter the facility in unison.
  4. (parapsychology) A person whose original soul has departed the body and been replaced with another.
Adjective

walk-in (not comparable)

  1. That may be walked into:
    1. (of a place) That people may enter without a prior appointment.
    2. (US, of a facility) Accessed by walking, either exclusively, as a campground, or together with drive-in access, as at some drive-in movie theaters.
    3. (of a, closet, pantry, refrigerator, freezer, etc) Spacious enough to walk into.
      • 1999, Cruise Travel, page 47:
        Our roomy superior category double looked out onto the open wraparound promenade through one-way glass that reversed its view at night. The closet was walk-in, and the bath had a full tub. The TV brought in both the BBC and Euronews, ...
      • 2011, Paradise Avenger, The Breaking of Poisonwood, Xlibris Corporation (ISBN 9781465397423), page 80:
        The closet was walk-in, but all the clothes had been shoved to one side over a low dresser. The other side was consumed by shelves spanning from floor to ceiling. Arranged on the shelves were boxes of every shape and size neatly labeled ...
      • 2017, K M Randall, Blue Sun, AuthorHouse (ISBN 9781546281740)
        My closet was walk-in with plenty of hanging space and drawers, but most of my clothes ended up on the floor anyway.
    4. Designed to be possible to walk into (without stepping over a ledge, etc).
      a walk-in bathtub
      • 2016, Douglas E Roff, Jacob A Roff, Cryptid: Discovery, BookBaby (ISBN 9781483577401)
        “The shower is walk in, multiple showerheads and a tiled bench. Take your time, I installed one of those perpetual hot water heaters, so you can have an endless experience. If you're not out in an hour, I'll call 911.”
      • 2018, Forrest Steele, Never Again, Seriously, Archway Publishing (ISBN 9781480867482):
        Eighteen-inch ceramic tiles, laid diagonally, made the home seem bigger. Opposite the kitchen was the bedroom wing with a master suite plus two other bedrooms, each having its own bath. All the showers were walk-in.
  2. (of a thief or theft) Gaining access through unlocked doors.
    • 1976, Warner A. Eliot, John R. Strack, Alice E. Witter, National Institute of Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice. National Evaluation Program, Mitre Corporation, Early-warning robbery reduction projects: an assessment of performance, section II, § A, page 6:
      [...] (locations, that are vulnerable to walk-in robbery), which makes isolation of the value from UCR statistics impossible.
    • 2010, Andrew Ashworth, Sentencing and Criminal Justice, Cambridge University Press (ISBN 9781139486743), page 137:
      [...], not least because the offence can vary from a quick walk-in theft to planned and targeted plundering.


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