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PORTER
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
Irregular inflected form: porter
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A very dark sweet ale brewed from roasted unmalted barley
Synonyms:
porter; porter's beer
Classified under:
Nouns denoting foods and drinks
Hypernyms ("porter" is a kind of...):
ale (a general name for beer made with a top fermenting yeast; in some of the United States an ale is (by law) a brew of more than 4% alcohol by volume)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Someone who guards an entrance
Synonyms:
door guard; doorkeeper; doorman; gatekeeper; hall porter; ostiary; porter
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("porter" is a kind of...):
guard (a person who keeps watch over something or someone)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "porter"):
commissionaire (a uniformed doorman)
night porter (a porter on duty during the night)
ticket collector; ticket taker (someone who is paid to admit only those who have purchased tickets)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A railroad employee who assists passengers (especially on sleeping cars)
Synonyms:
porter; Pullman porter
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("porter" is a kind of...):
employee (a worker who is hired to perform a job)
Sense 4
Meaning:
A person employed to carry luggage and supplies
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("porter" is a kind of...):
jack; laborer; labourer; manual laborer (someone who works with their hands; someone engaged in manual labor)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "porter"):
redcap (a porter who helps passengers with their baggage at a railroad station)
skycap (a porter who helps passengers with their baggage at an airport)
Derivation:
port (carry, bear, convey, or bring)
porter (carry luggage or supplies)
Sense 5
Meaning:
United States writer of short stories whose pen name was O. Henry (1862-1910)
Synonyms:
O. Henry; Porter; William Sydney Porter
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Instance hypernyms:
author; writer (writes (books or stories or articles or the like) professionally (for pay))
Sense 6
Meaning:
United States composer and lyricist of musical comedies (1891-1946)
Synonyms:
Cole Albert Porter; Cole Porter; Porter
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Instance hypernyms:
composer (someone who composes music as a profession)
Sense 7
Meaning:
United States writer of novels and short stories (1890-1980)
Synonyms:
Katherine Anne Porter; Porter
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Instance hypernyms:
author; writer (writes (books or stories or articles or the like) professionally (for pay))
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Carry luggage or supplies
Example:
They portered the food up Mount Kilimanjaro for the tourists
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Hypernyms (to "porter" is one way to...):
carry; transport (move while supporting, either in a vehicle or in one's hands or on one's body)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Derivation:
porter (a person employed to carry luggage and supplies)
porterage (the transportation of burdens by porters)
porterage (the charge for carrying burdens by porters)
Context examples:
Drag him forth, and let the foresters and the porters scourge him from the precincts!
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The porter opened the gates of the court, which had that night been my asylum, and I issued into the streets, pacing them with quick steps, as if I sought to avoid the wretch whom I feared every turning of the street would present to my view.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
After some breakage of the office furniture, the editor (an ex-college athlete), ably assisted by the business manager, an advertising agent, and the porter, succeeded in removing Martin from the office and in accelerating, by initial impulse, his descent of the first flight of stairs.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
The palace of a chief minister is a seminary to breed up others in his own trade: the pages, lackeys, and porters, by imitating their master, become ministers of state in their several districts, and learn to excel in the three principal ingredients, of insolence, lying, and bribery.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
The last that the porter saw of them, they were almost running down the street in the direction of the Strand.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Now, you will remember also that Mrs. Porter, the housekeeper, told us that she herself fainted upon entering the room and had afterwards opened the window.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I live at the lodge: the old porter has left.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Then, having taken another look round, I returned to my carriage, where I found that the porter, in spite of the ticket, had given me my decrepit Italian friend as a traveling companion.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I was the only passenger who got out there, and there was no one upon the platform save a single sleepy porter with a lantern.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
After which he borrowed a shilling of me for porter, gave me a written order on Mrs. Micawber for the amount, and put away his pocket-handkerchief, and cheered up.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
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