1891 Econ. Jrnl. 1 429 There is no compressibility in gatekeeping. A man by energy and contrivance may do as much weaving in a short day as in a long one, but no man can do as much gatekeeping.

1909 Times 4 Mar. 6/4 It is hardly creditable that their ‘gate-keeping’ has involved the Government in so many frontier expeditions, with heavy losses of life.

1963 Public Opinion Q. 27 272 Servants and apartment-house personnel perform gatekeeping as a manifest function. A part of their role consists of protecting the occupants of a residence from contact with strangers.

1988 Broadcasting (Nexis) 12 Dec. 68 ABC News's Greenfield says low level of presidential campaign and growth of ‘trash TV’ reflects ‘lack of effective gatekeeping’.

1997 Tampa (Florida) Tribune (Nexis) 12 Mar. 5 These activities are on top of the regular gate-keeping, T-shirt selling, and working on the field where he sometimes spends from noon until 11 p.m. on game days.

1825 J. G. C. Brainard Occas. Pieces of Poetry 42 Up blooming Parnassus bound higher and higher, While the gate-keeping Graces no toll shall require.

1979 Washington Post (Nexis) 2 Feb. 6 The museum has always accepted everything that came in... We're in the process of..junking the trash and setting up a gatekeeping system that will limit what comes in to what is useful.

1997 Press-Enterprise (Riverside, California) (Nexis) 9 Sept. d1 A woman who selects an ob-gyn as her primary-care doctor has direct access to that physician without having to go through another ‘gatekeeping’ physician.