Part 57
Port"a*ble*ness, n. The quality or state of being portable; portability.
Por"tace (?; 48), n. See Portass. [Obs.]
Port"age (?; 48), n. [From 2d Port.] (Naut.) (a) A sailor's wages when in port. (b) The amount of a sailor's wages for a voyage.
Port"age, n. [3d Port.] A porthole. [Obs.] Shak.
Por"tage (?), n. [F., from porter to carry. See Port to carry.] 1. The act of carrying or transporting.
2. The price of carriage; porterage. Bp. Fell.
3. Capacity for carrying; tonnage. [Obs.] Hakluyt.
4. A carry between navigable waters. See 3d Carry.
Por"tage (?), v. t. & i. To carry (goods, boats, etc.) overland between navigable waters.
Por"tage group` (?). [So called from the township of Portage in New York.] (Geol.) A subdivision of the Chemung period in American geology. See Chart of Geology.
Por"ta*gue (?), n. [See Portuguese.] A Portuguese gold coin formerly current, and variously estimated to be worth from three and one half to four and one half pounds sterling. [Obs.] [Written also portegue and portigue.]
Ten thousand portagues, besides great pearls.
Marlowe.
Por"tal (?), n. [OF. portal, F. portail, LL. portale, fr. L. porta a gate. See Port a gate.] 1. A door or gate; hence, a way of entrance or exit, especially one that is grand and imposing.
Thick with sparkling orient gems The portal shone.
Milton.
From out the fiery portal of the east.
Shak.
2. (Arch.) (a) The lesser gate, where there are two of different dimensions. (b) Formerly, a small square corner in a room separated from the rest of the apartment by wainscoting, forming a short passage to another apartment. (c) By analogy with the French portail, used by recent writers for the whole architectural composition which surrounds and includes the doorways and porches of a church.
3. (Bridge Building) The space, at one end, between opposite trusses when these are terminated by inclined braces.
4. A prayer book or breviary; a portass. [Obs.]
Portal bracing (Bridge Building), a combination of struts and ties which lie in the plane of the inclined braces at a portal, serving to transfer wind pressure from the upper parts of the trusses to an abutment or pier of the bridge.
Por"tal (?), a. (Anat.) Of or pertaining to a porta, especially the porta of the liver; as, the portal vein, which enters the liver at the porta, and divides into capillaries after the manner of an artery.
Portal is applied to other veins which break up into capillaries; as, the renal portal veins in the frog.
||Por`ta*men"to (?), n. [It., fr. portare to carry.] (Mus.) In singing, ||or in the use of the bow, a gradual carrying or lifting of the voice ||or sound very smoothly from one note to another; a gliding from tone ||to tone.
Por"tance (?), n. See Port, carriage, demeanor. [Obs.] Spenser. Shak.
Por"tass (?), n. [OF. porte-hors a kind of prayer book, so called from being portable; cf. LL. portiforium.] A breviary; a prayer book. [Written variously portace, portasse, portesse, portise, porthose, portos, portus, portuse, etc.] [Obs.] Spenser. Camden.
By God and by this porthors I you swear.
Chaucer.
Por"tate (?), a. [L. portatus, p. p. of portare to carry.] (Her.) Borne not erect, but diagonally athwart an escutcheon; as, a cross portate.
Por"ta*tive (?), a. [Cf. F. portatif.] 1. Portable. [Obs.]
2. (Physics) Capable of holding up or carrying; as, the portative force of a magnet, of atmospheric pressure, or of capillarity.
Port"cluse (?), n. A portcullis. [Obs.]
Port`cray"on (?), n. [F. porte- crayon; porter to carry + crayon a crayon.] A metallic handle with a clasp for holding a crayon.
Port*cul"lis (?), n. [OF. porte coulisse, coleÔce, a sliding door, fr. L. colare, colatum, to filter, to strain: cf. F. couler to glide. See Port a gate, and cf. Cullis, Colander.] 1. (Fort.) A grating of iron or of timbers pointed with iron, hung over the gateway of a fortress, to be let down to prevent the entrance of an enemy. "Let the portcullis fall." Sir W. Scott.
She . . . the huge portcullis high updrew.
Milton.
2. An English coin of the reign of Elizabeth, struck for the use of the East India Company; -- so called from its bearing the figure of a portcullis on the reverse.
Port*cul"lis, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Portcullised (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Portcullising.] To obstruct with, or as with, a portcullis; to shut; to bar. [R.] Shak.
Porte (?), n. [F. porte a gate, L. porta. See Port a gate.] The Ottoman court; the government of the Turkish empire, officially called the Sublime Porte, from the gate (port) of the sultan's palace at which justice was administered.
||Porte"-co`chËre" (?), n. [F. See Port a gate, and Coach.] (Arch.) A ||large doorway allowing vehicles to drive into or through a building. ||It is common to have the entrance door open upon the passage of the ||porte-cochËre. Also, a porch over a driveway before an entrance door.
Port"ed (?), a. Having gates. [Obs.]
We took the sevenfold-ported Thebes.
Chapman.
Por"te*gue (?), n. See Portague. [Obs.]
Porte"mon*naie` (?), n. [F., fr. porter to carry + monnaie money.] A small pocketbook or wallet for carrying money.
Por*tend" (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Portended; p. pr. & vb. n. Portending.] [L. portendre, portentum, to foretell, to predict, to impend, from an old preposition used in comp. + tendere to stretch. See Position, Tend.] 1. To indicate (events, misfortunes, etc.) as in future; to foreshow; to foretoken; to bode; -- now used esp. of unpropitious signs. Bacon.
Many signs portended a dark and stormy day.
Macaulay.
2. To stretch out before. [R.] "Doomed to feel the great Idomeneus' portended steel." Pope.
Syn. -- To foreshow; foretoken; betoken; forebode; augur; presage; foreshadow; threaten.
Por*ten"sion (?), n. The act of foreshowing; foreboding. [R.] Sir T. Browne.
Por*tent" (?; 277), n. [L. portentum. See Portend.] That which portends, or foretoken; esp., that which portends evil; a sign of coming calamity; an omen; a sign. Shak.
My loss by dire portents the god foretold.
Dryden.
Por*tent"ive (?), a. Presaging; foreshadowing.
Por*tent"ous (?), a. [L. portentosus.] 1. Of the nature of a portent; containing portents; foreshadowing, esp. foreshadowing ill; ominous.
For, I believe, they are portentous things.
Shak.
Victories of strange and almost portentous splendor.
Macaulay.
2. Hence: Monstrous; prodigious; wonderful; dreadful; as, a beast of portentous size. Roscommon.
-- Por*tent"ous*ly, adv. -- Por*tent"ous*ness, n.
Por"ter (?), n. [F. portier, L. portarius, from porta a gate, door. See Port a gate.] A man who has charge of a door or gate; a doorkeeper; one who waits at the door to receive messages. Shak.
To him the porter openeth.
John x. 3.
Por"ter, n. [F. porteur, fr. porter to carry, L. portare. See Port to carry.] 1. A carrier; one who carries or conveys burdens, luggage, etc.; for hire.
2. (Forging) A bar of iron or steel at the end of which a forging is made; esp., a long, large bar, to the end of which a heavy forging is attached, and by means of which the forging is lifted and handled in hammering and heating; -- called also porter bar.
3. A malt liquor, of a dark color and moderately bitter taste, possessing tonic and intoxicating qualities.
Porter is said to be so called as having been first used chiefly by the London porters, and this application of the word is supposed to be not older than 1750.
Por"ter*age (?), n. 1. The work of a porter; the occupation of a carrier or of a doorkeeper.
2. Money charged or paid for the carriage of burdens or parcels by a porter.
Por"ter*ess, n. See Portress.
Por"ter*house, n. A house where porter is sold.
Porterhouse steak, a steak cut from a sirloin of beet, including the upper and under part.
Por"tesse (?), n. See Porteass. [Obs.] Tyndale.
Port"fire` (?), n. A case of strong paper filled with a composition of niter, sulphur, and mealed powder, -- used principally to ignite the priming in proving guns, and as an incendiary material in shells.
Port*fol"io (?), n. [F. portefeuille; porter to carry + feuille a leaf. See Port to carry, and Folio.] 1. A portable case for holding loose papers, prints, drawings, etc.
2. Hence: The office and functions of a minister of state or member of the cabinet; as, to receive the portfolio of war; to resign the portfolio.
Port"glave (?), n. [F. porte- glaive; porter to carry + glaive a sword.] A sword bearer. [Obs.]
{ Port"greve` (?), Port"grave` (?), }[AS. portgerfa; port a harbor + gerfa a reeve or sheriff. See Reeve a steward, and cf. Portreeve.] In old English law, the chief magistrate of a port or maritime town.; a portreeve. [Obs.] Fabyan.
Port"hole` (?), n. (Naut.) An embrasure in a ship's side. See 3d Port.
Port"hook` (?), n. (Naut.) One of the iron hooks to which the port hinges are attached. J. Knowles.
Port"hors` (?), n. See Portass. [Obs.] Chaucer.
Por"ti*co, n.; pl. Porticoes (#) or Porticos. [It., L. porticus. See Porch.] (Arch.) A colonnade or covered ambulatory, especially in classical styles of architecture; usually, a colonnade at the entrance of a building.
Por"ti*coed (?), a. Furnished with a portico.
||Por`tiËre"" (?), n. [F., fr. porte gate, door. See Port a gate.] A ||curtain hanging across a doorway.
Por"ti*gue (?), n. See Portague. Beau. & Fl.
Por"tin*gal (?), a. Of or pertaining to Portugal; Portuguese. [Obs.] -- n. A Portuguese. [Obs.]
Por"tion (?), n. [F., from L. portio, akin to pars, partis, a part. See Part, n.] 1. That which is divided off or separated, as a part from a whole; a separated part of anything.
2. A part considered by itself, though not actually cut off or separated from the whole.
These are parts of his ways; but how little a portion is heard of him!
Job xxvi. 14.
Portions and parcels of the dreadful past.
Tennyson.
3. A part assigned; allotment; share; fate.
The lord of that servant . . . will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.
Luke xii. 46.
Man's portion is to die and rise again.
Keble.
4. The part of an estate given to a child or heir, or descending to him by law, and distributed to him in the settlement of the estate; an inheritance.
Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me.
Luke xv. 12.
5. A wife's fortune; a dowry. Shak.
Syn. -- Division; share; parcel; quantity; allotment; dividend. -- Portion, Part. Part is generic, having a simple reference to some whole. Portion has the additional idea of such a division as bears reference to an individual, or is allotted to some object; as, a portion of one's time; a portion of Scripture.
Por"tion, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Portioned (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Portioning.] 1. To separate or divide into portions or shares; to parcel; to distribute.
And portion to his tribes the wide domain.
Pope.
2. To endow with a portion or inheritance.
Him portioned maids, apprenticed orphans, blest.
Pope.
<! p. 1117 !>
Por"tion*er (?), n. 1. One who portions.
2. (Eccl.) See Portionist, 2.
Por"tion*ist (?), n. 1. A scholar at Merton College, Oxford, who has a certain academical allowance or portion; -- corrupted into postmaster. Shipley.
2. (Eccl.) One of the incumbents of a benefice which has two or more rectors or vicars.
Por"tion*less, a. Having no portion.
Por"tise (?), n. See Portass. [Obs.]
Port"land ce*ment" (?). A cement having the color of the Portland stone of England, made by calcining an artificial mixture of carbonate of lime and clay, or sometimes certain natural limestones or chalky clays. It contains a large proportion of clay, and hardens under water.
Port"land stone" (?). A yellowish-white calcareous freestone from the Isle of Portland in England, much used in building.
Port"land vase` (?). A celebrated cinerary urn or vase found in the tomb of the Emperor Alexander Severus. It is owned by the Duke of Portland, and kept in the British Museum.
Port"last (?), n. (Naut.) The portoise. See Portoise.
Port"li*ness (?), n. 1. The quality or state of being portly; dignity of mien or of personal appearance; stateliness.
Such pride is praise; such portliness is honor.
Spenser.
2. Bulkiness; corpulence.
Port"ly, a. [From Port demeanor.] 1. Having a dignified port or mien; of a noble appearance; imposing.
2. Bulky; corpulent. "A portly personage." Dickens.
Port"man (?), n.; pl. Portmen (&?;). An inhabitant or burgess of a port, esp. of one of the Cinque Ports.
Port*man"teau (?), n.; pl. Portmanteaus (#). [F. porte-manteau; porter to carry + manteau a cloak, mantle. See Port to carry, and Mantle.] A bag or case, usually of leather, for carrying wearing apparel, etc., on journeys. Thackeray.
Port*man"tle (?), n. A portmanteau. [Obs.]
Port"mote` (?), n. In old English law, a court, or mote, held in a port town. [Obs.] Blackstone.
Por"toir (?), n. [OF., fr. porter to bear.] One who, or that which, bears; hence, one who, or that which, produces. [Obs.]
Branches . . . which were portoirs, and bare grapes.
Holland.
Por"toise (?), n. [Perhaps fr. OF. porteis portative, portable.] (Naut.) The gunwale of a ship.
To lower the yards a-portoise, to lower them to the gunwale. -- To ride a portoise, to ride an anchor with the lower yards and topmasts struck or lowered, as in a gale of wind.
Por"tos (?), n. See Portass. [Obs.]
Port"pane (?), n. [From L. portare to carry + panis bread; prob. through French.] A cloth for carrying bread, so as not to touch it with the hands. [Obs.]
Por"trait (?), n. [F., originally p. p. of portraire to portray. See Portray.] 1. The likeness of a person, painted, drawn, or engraved; commonly, a representation of the human face painted from real life.
In portraits, the grace, and, we may add, the likeness, consists more in the general air than in the exact similitude of every feature.
Sir J. Reynolds.
The meaning of the word is sometimes extended so as to include a photographic likeness.
2. Hence, any graphic or vivid delineation or description of a person; as, a portrait in words.
Portrait bust, or Portrait statue, a bust or statue representing the actual features or person of an individual; -- in distinction from an ideal bust or statue.
Por"trait, v. t. To portray; to draw. [Obs.] Spenser.
Por"trait*ist, n. A portrait painter. [R.] Hamerton.
Por"trai*ture (?; 135), n. [F. portraiture.] 1. A portrait; a likeness; a painted resemblance; hence, that which is copied from some example or model.
For, by the image of my cause, I see The portraiture of his.
Shak.
Divinity maketh the love of ourselves the pattern; the love of our neighbors but the portraiture.
Bacon.
2. Pictures, collectively; painting. [Obs.] Chaucer.
3. The art or practice of making portraits. Walpole.
Por"trai*ture, v. t. To represent by a portrait, or as by a portrait; to portray. [R.] Shaftesbury.
Por*tray" (?), v. t. [Written also pourtray.] [imp. & p. p. portrayed (&?;); p. pr. & vb. n. Portraying.] [OE. pourtraien, OF. portraire, pourtraire, F. portraire, fr. L. protrahere, protractum, to draw or drag forth; pro forward, forth + trahere to draw. See Trace, v. t., and cf. Protract.] 1. To paint or draw the likeness of; as, to portray a king on horseback.
Take a tile, and lay it before thee, and portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem.
Ezek. iv. 1.
2. Hence, figuratively, to describe in words.
3. To adorn with pictures. [R.]
Spear and helmets thronged, and shields Various with boastful arguments potrayed.
Milton.
Por*tray"al (?), n. The act or process of portraying; description; delineation.
Por*tray"er (?), n. One who portrays. Chaucer.
Port"reeve` (?), n. A port warden.
Por"tress (?), n. A female porter. Milton.
Port-roy"al*ist (?), n. (Eccl. Hist.) One of the dwellers in the Cistercian convent of Port Royal des Champs, near Paris, when it was the home of the Jansenists in the 17th century, among them being Arnauld, Pascal, and other famous scholars. Cf. Jansenist.
Port"sale` (?), n. [Port gate + sale.] Public or open sale; auction. [Obs.] Holland.
Por"tu*a*ry (?; 135), n. [Cf. Portass.] (R. C. Ch.) A breviary. [Eng.]
Por"tu*guese (?), a. [Cf. F. portugais, Sp. portugues, Pg. portuguez.] Of or pertaining to Portugal, or its inhabitants. -- n. sing. & pl. A native or inhabitant of Portugal; people of Portugal.
Portuguese man-of-war. (Zoˆl.) See Physalia.
||Por`tu*la"ca (?), n. [L., purslane.] (Bot.) A genus of polypetalous ||plants; also, any plant of the genus.
Portulaca oleracea is the common purslane. P. grandiflora is a South American herb, widely cultivated for its showy crimson, scarlet, yellow, or white, ephemeral blossoms.
Por`tu*la*ca"ceous (?), a. (Bot.) Of or pertaining to a natural order of plants (PortulacaceÊ), of which Portulaca is the type, and which includes also the spring beauty (Claytonia) and other genera.
Por"wi`gle (?), n. See Polliwig.
Por"y (?), a. Porous; as, pory stone. [R.] Dryden.
||Po`sÈ" (?), a. [F., placed, posed.] (Her.) Standing still, with all ||the feet on the ground; -- said of the attitude of a lion, horse, or ||other beast.
Pose (?), n. [AS. gepose; of uncertain origin; cf. W. pas a cough, Skr. ks to cough, and E. wheeze.] A cold in the head; catarrh. [Obs.] Chaucer.
Pose (?), n. [F. pose, fr. poser. See Pose, v. t.] The attitude or position of a person; the position of the body or of any member of the body; especially, a position formally assumed for the sake of effect; an artificial position; as, the pose of an actor; the pose of an artist's model or of a statue.
Pose, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Posed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Posing.] [F. poser to place, to put, L. pausare to pause, in LL. also, to place, put, fr. L. pausa a pause, Gr. &?;, fr. &?; to make to cease, prob. akin to E. few. In compounds, this word appears corresponding to L. ponere to put, place, the substitution in French having been probably due to confusion of this word with L. positio position, fr. ponere. See Few, and cf. Appose, Dispose, Oppose, Pause, Repose, Position.] To place in an attitude or fixed position, for the sake of effect; to arrange the posture and drapery of (a person) in a studied manner; as, to pose a model for a picture; to pose a sitter for a portrait.
Pose, v. i. To assume and maintain a studied attitude, with studied arrangement of drapery; to strike an attitude; to attitudinize; figuratively, to assume or affect a certain character; as, she poses as a prude.
He . . . posed before her as a hero.
Thackeray.
Pose, v. t. [Shortened from appose, for oppose. See 2d Appose, Oppose.] 1. To interrogate; to question. [Obs.] "She . . . posed him and sifted him." Bacon.
2. To question with a view to puzzling; to embarrass by questioning or scrutiny; to bring to a stand.
A question wherewith a learned Pharisee thought to pose and puzzle him.
Barrow.
Posed (?), a. Firm; determined; fixed. "A most posed . . . and grave behavior." [Obs.] Urquhart.
Pos"er (?), n. One who, or that which, puzzles; a difficult or inexplicable question or fact. Bacon.
Po"sied (?), a. Inscribed with a posy.
In poised lockets bribe the fair.
Gay.
Pos"ing*ly (?), adv. So as to pose or puzzle.
Pos"it (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Posited; p. pr. & vb. n. Positing.] [L. ponere, positum, to place. See Position.] 1. To dispose or set firmly or fixedly; to place or dispose in relation to other objects. Sir M. Hale.
2. (Logic) To assume as real or conceded; as, to posit a principle. Sir W. Hamilton.
Po*si"tion (?), n. [F. position, L. positio, fr. ponere, positum, to put, place; prob. for posino, fr. an old preposition used only in comp. (akin to Gr. &?;) + sinere to leave, let, permit, place. See Site, and cf. Composite, Compound, v., Depone, Deposit, Expound, Impostor, Opposite, Propound, Pose, v., Posit, Post, n.]
1. The state of being posited, or placed; the manner in which anything is placed; attitude; condition; as, a firm, an inclined, or an upright position.
We have different prospects of the same thing, according to our different positions to it.
Locke.
2. The spot where a person or thing is placed or takes a place; site; place; station; situation; as, the position of man in creation; the fleet changed its position.
3. Hence: The ground which any one takes in an argument or controversy; the point of view from which any one proceeds to a discussion; also, a principle laid down as the basis of reasoning; a proposition; a thesis; as, to define one's position; to appear in a false position.
Let not the proof of any position depend on the positions that follow, but always on those which go before.
I. Watts.
4. Relative place or standing; social or official rank; as, a person of position; hence, office; post; as, to lose one's position.
5. (Arith.) A method of solving a problem by one or two suppositions; -- called also the rule of trial and error.
Angle of position (Astron.), the angle which any line (as that joining two stars) makes with another fixed line, specifically with a circle of declination. -- Double position (Arith.), the method of solving problems by proceeding with each of two assumed numbers, according to the conditions of the problem, and by comparing the difference of the results with those of the numbers, deducing the correction to be applied to one of them to obtain the true result. -- Guns of position (Mil.), heavy fieldpieces, not designed for quick movements. -- Position finder (Mil.), a range finder. See under Range. -- Position micrometer, a micrometer applied to the tube of an astronomical telescope for measuring angles of position in the field of view. -- Single position (Arith.), the method of solving problems, in which the result obtained by operating with an assumed number is to the true result as the number assumed is to the number required. -- Strategic position (Mil.), a position taken up by an army or a large detachment of troops for the purpose of checking or observing an opposing force.
Syn. -- Situation; station; place; condition; attitude; posture; proposition; assertion; thesis.
Po*si"tion (?), v. t. To indicate the position of; to place. [R.] Encyc. Brit.
Po*si"tion*al (?), a. Of or pertaining to position.
Ascribing unto plants positional operations.
Sir T. Browne.
Pos"i*tive (?), a. [OE. positif, F. positif, L. positivus. See Position.] 1. Having a real position, existence, or energy; existing in fact; real; actual; -- opposed to negative. "Positive good." Bacon.
2. Derived from an object by itself; not dependent on changing circumstances or relations; absolute; -- opposed to relative; as, the idea of beauty is not positive, but depends on the different tastes individuals.
3. Definitely laid down; explicitly stated; clearly expressed; -- opposed to implied; as, a positive declaration or promise.
Positive words, that he would not bear arms against King Edward's son.
Bacon.
4. Hence: Not admitting of any doubt, condition, qualification, or discretion; not dependent on circumstances or probabilities; not speculative; compelling assent or obedience; peremptory; indisputable; decisive; as, positive instructions; positive truth; positive proof. "'T is positive 'gainst all exceptions." Shak.
5. Prescribed by express enactment or institution; settled by arbitrary appointment; said of laws.
In laws, that which is natural bindeth universally; that which is positive, not so.
Hooker.
6. Fully assured; confident; certain; sometimes, overconfident; dogmatic; overbearing; -- said of persons.
Some positive, persisting fops we know, That, if once wrong, will needs be always.
Pope.
7. Having the power of direct action or influence; as, a positive voice in legislation. Swift.
8. (Photog.) Corresponding with the original in respect to the position of lights and shades, instead of having the lights and shades reversed; as, a positive picture.