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The Gutenberg Webster's Unabridged Dictionary: Section P and Q · Project Gutenberg — chapter 422 of 752 · ~429 words · public domain

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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.

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