PORTER (porter)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected form: porter   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Porter mean? 

• PORTER (noun)
  The noun PORTER has 7 senses:

1. a person employed to carry luggage and supplies

2. someone who guards an entrance

3. United States writer of novels and short stories (1890-1980)

4. United States composer and lyricist of musical comedies (1891-1946)

5. United States writer of short stories whose pen name was O. Henry (1862-1910)

6. a railroad employee who assists passengers (especially on sleeping cars)

7. a very dark sweet ale brewed from roasted unmalted barley

  Familiarity information: PORTER used as a noun is common.

• PORTER (verb)
  The verb PORTER has 1 sense:

1. carry luggage or supplies

  Familiarity information: PORTER used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PORTER (noun)

Sense 1

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 2

Meaning:

Someone who guards an entrance

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

door guard; doorkeeper; doorman; gatekeeper; hall porter; ostiary; porter

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:

United States writer of novels and short stories (1890-1980)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Katherine Anne Porter; Porter

Instance hypernyms:

author; writer (writes (books or stories or articles or the like) professionally (for pay))

Sense 4

Meaning:

United States composer and lyricist of musical comedies (1891-1946)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Cole Albert Porter; Cole Porter; Porter

Instance hypernyms:

composer (someone who composes music as a profession)

Sense 5

Meaning:

United States writer of short stories whose pen name was O. Henry (1862-1910)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

O. Henry; Porter; William Sydney Porter

Instance hypernyms:

author; writer (writes (books or stories or articles or the like) professionally (for pay))

Sense 6

Meaning:

A railroad employee who assists passengers (especially on sleeping cars)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

porter; Pullman porter

Hypernyms ("porter" is a kind of...):

employee (a worker who is hired to perform a job)

Sense 7

Meaning:

A very dark sweet ale brewed from roasted unmalted barley

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Synonyms:

porter; porter's beer

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)

• PORTER (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Carry luggage or supplies

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

They portered the food up Mount Kilimanjaro for the tourists

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 

The porter was so scared that he was going to fetch me, but Godfrey stopped him, had a drink of water, and pulled himself together.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"Are you certain that no servant, no porter has left any letter or note?"

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

The men stopped at our gate to ask the porter their way, as they were strangers.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He told me that old Mrs. Porter had sent a boy down with an urgent message.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As he came up to me I made out that he was a railway porter.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And that then they had come to me, and had had bottled porter and sandwiches on the road.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The same porter was on duty, I found, as had been there when I arrived.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

In front of them a porter pushes a trolley piled high with trunks, wraps, and gun-cases.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

"Is she going by herself?" asked the porter's wife.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I might as well have asked for porters and a handbarrow.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)