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This context comes from the book "To Kill A Mocking Bird" by Harper Lee. It's the part of the book in which neighbors are fighting a fire that broke out in Miss Maudie's house.

"The men of Maycomb, in all degrees of dress and undress, took furniture from Miss Maudie’s house to a yard across the street."

What is the meaning of the word "yard" in this context?

1 US: an outdoor area that is next to a house and is usually covered by grass Children were playing out in the yard. [=(Brit) garden] a tree in the back/front yard (Britannica dictionary)

2 : the land around a building the prison yard [=grounds] — see also schoolyard (Britannica dictionary)

  1. a courtyard. (Random House Kernerman dictionary)

Does this mean that they took Miss Maudie's furniture and put it in the front yard of one of the neighbors who lives across the street from her?

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  • A "yard" in the US can refer to a special purpose area like a "junk yard" or a "freight yard" but in a residential neighborhood "a yard across the street" refers to the plot of land at the front or on the side of a house, often covered in grass that is kept mown short. If there were no house there it would normally be called "an empty lot". Commented Jul 21, 2024 at 15:49
  • @TimR But what you are saying is that there is a house there and we can infer that because the word yard is used. Do I understand that correctly? Commented Jul 21, 2024 at 15:51
  • From the phrase "a yard across the street" in the context of a residential neighborhood I would indeed infer that there is a house there, as would most speakers of AmE, for the reasons I gave. Commented Jul 21, 2024 at 15:53
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    yard in the cited context just means a relatively small (garden-sized) area of land where things can be put. It may or may not be enclosed / fenced in, and may or may not be obviously "attached" to some nearby building. Consider junkyard, back yard, churchyard, graveyard,... Commented Jul 21, 2024 at 17:32
  • @FumbleFingers I agree. This is how we use yard. It doesn't only mean yard attached to a house - front yard or back yard of a house. Commented Jul 22, 2024 at 4:08

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As you say, American English uses yard in much the same way that British English uses garden. The prototypical American house is situated on a plot of land in such a way as to effectively separate the plot into a front yard and a backyard. (Why the latter is a compound word and the former isn’t is a mystery for the ages.) The front yard is the more publicly facing of the two. If the plot is wide enough, there may also be a side yard (or two).

Anyway, in using the word yard here, with no other words or phrases to modify it, Lee highly likely intended that interpretation: implying the existence—on the plot of land opposite Miss Maudie’s—of a house. If that plot is wide enough and its house is far enough down the street, then perhaps the spot where the furniture gets put could be described as being in the side yard. There’s no hard and fast boundary between side and front yards.

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    It can still be a "yard" even if there's no obvious nearby building to which it's associated. At some point it becomes impossible to distinuguish "a yard" from "a vacant lot" (where in principle there could be a house for which the rest of the "lot" might be called the yard, if that house existed). Commented Jul 21, 2024 at 17:36
  • Not in American English, @FumbleFingers. Lot? Yes. Field? Yes. Property? I suppose. But without any “improvements” (buildings) it would not be a yard in American English. Lumber yards, freight yards, school yards, dock yards, etc…. All have some improvements. Commented Jul 21, 2024 at 17:50
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    For instance, in an area being developed (i .e., where houses are being built), any particular spot that will someday be described as in a yard doesn’t meet that criterion until the house is there. Before that, the spot would be described as in the lot. Commented Jul 21, 2024 at 17:54
  • "American English" is a broad category. My comment wasn't peculiar to any particular variety of English (or indeed, era). Any section of unused land close to buildings can be a yard, even if you're not used to the usage. Commented Jul 21, 2024 at 20:16
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    But @FumbleFingers, To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic of American literature. There. If you’re done, I am done. Commented Jul 21, 2024 at 22:18

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