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An excerpt from A Study in Scarlet:

A short passage, bare planked and dusty, led to the kitchen and offices. Two doors opened out of it to the left and to the right.

Could anyone please explain to me what does the second sentence mean? First I thought, the main verb is "open out", which means of a road or a pathway to widen at the end. But that doesn't seem right; it just doesn't fit together. Then, I understood that "out of it" is a preposition and "open to something" is the main verb. But I still can't understand it exactly. And what is the picture that you have in your mind when you read this sentence?

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  • "open out of" = "open from"
    – gotube ♦
    Aug 22, 2021 at 4:52
  • How does a door open from a passage? Where is the door and where is the passage? What's the picture?
    – Mostafizur Rahman
    Aug 22, 2021 at 8:54
  • Do you know what a door and a passage are? Do an image search for "door" an "passage"
    – gotube ♦
    Aug 23, 2021 at 14:47

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I would guess that this means that the passage goes straight to the area with the kitchen and offices, and there are two doors, one on each side of the passage, that go to other rooms.

Doors opened out of it (the passage) is a colorful way of saying that the doors lead out of the passage.

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  • My back door opens out of my kitchen into my back garden; my front door opens out of my entrance hall into the street. A door 'opens out' into the place or location on the other side.
    – Michael Harvey
    Aug 21, 2021 at 21:07

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