Portage
(Port"age), n. [3d Port.] A porthole. [Obs.] Shak.
Portage
(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.
Portage
(Por"tage) v. t. & i. To carry (goods, boats, etc.) overland between navigable waters.
Portage group
(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.
Portague
(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. Portal
(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.
Portal
(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.
Portamento
(||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.
Portance
(Por"tance) n. See Port, carriage, demeanor. [Obs.] Spenser. Shak.
