air curtain

noun

: an artificially created stream of moving air that is blown across a doorway or other opening to create a barrier (as for repelling flying insects or preventing heat transfer)

In addition to requiring the cleanup and repairs, the health inspector also suggested the business install an air curtain at the back door leading to the food preparation room to control flies …

—Joseph Deinlein, Evening Sun (Hanover, Pennsylvania), 20 July 2009

The air curtain differs from a solid door as it provides no physical barrier between customer and product …

—S. J. James and C. James, Meat Refrigeration, 2002

Word History

First Known Use

1894, in the meaning defined above

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