Webster's Unabridged Dictionary - Letter P - Page 96

Porite (n.) Any coral of the genus Porites, or family Poritidae.

Porites (n.) An important genus of reef-building corals having small twelve-rayed calicles, and a very porous coral. Some species are branched, others grow in large massive or globular forms.

Pork (n.) The flesh of swine, fresh or salted, used for food.

Porker (n.) A hog.

Porket (n.) A young hog; a pig.

Porkling (n.) A pig; a porket.

Porkwood (n.) The coarse-grained brownish yellow wood of a small tree (Pisonia obtusata) of Florida and the West Indies. Also called pigeon wood, beefwood, and corkwood.

Pornerastic (a.) Lascivious; licentious.

Pornographic (a.) Of or pertaining to pornography; lascivious; licentious; as, pornographic writing.

Pornography (n.) Licentious painting or literature; especially, the painting anciently employed to decorate the walls of rooms devoted to bacchanalian orgies.

Pornography (n.) A treatise on prostitutes, or prostitution.

Porosity (n.) The quality or state of being porous; -- opposed to density.

Porotic (n.) A medicine supposed to promote the formation of callus.

Porous (n.) Full of pores; having interstices in the skin or in the substance of the body; having spiracles or passages for fluids; permeable by liquids; as, a porous skin; porous wood.

Porously (adv.) In a porous manner.

Porousness (n.) The quality of being porous.

Porousness (n.) The open parts; the interstices of anything.

Porpentine (n.) Porcupine.

Porpesse (n.) A porpoise.

Porphyraceous (a.) Porphyritic.

Porphyre (n.) Porphyry.

Porphyrite (n.) A rock with a porphyritic structure; as, augite porphyrite.

Porphyritic (a.) Relating to, or resembling, porphyry, that is, characterized by the presence of distinct crystals, as of feldspar, quartz, or augite, in a relatively fine-grained base, often aphanitic or cryptocrystalline.

Porphyrization (n.) The act of porphyrizing, or the state of being porphyrized.

Porphyrize (v. t.) To cause to resemble porphyry; to make spotted in composition, like porphyry.

Porphyrogenitism (n.) The principle of succession in royal families, especially among the Eastern Roman emperors, by which a younger son, if born after the accession of his father to the throne, was preferred to an elder son who was not so born.

Porphyries (pl. ) of Porphyry

Porphyry (n.) A term used somewhat loosely to designate a rock consisting of a fine-grained base (usually feldspathic) through which crystals, as of feldspar or quartz, are disseminated. There are red, purple, and green varieties, which are highly esteemed as marbles.

Porpita (n.) A genus of bright-colored Siphonophora found floating in the warmer parts of the ocean. The individuals are round and disk-shaped, with a large zooid in the center of the under side, surrounded by smaller nutritive and reproductive zooids, and by slender dactylozooids near the margin. The disk contains a central float, or pneumatocyst.

Porpoise (n.) Any small cetacean of the genus Phocaena, especially P. communis, or P. phocaena, of Europe, and the closely allied American species (P. Americana). The color is dusky or blackish above, paler beneath. They are closely allied to the dolphins, but have a shorter snout. Called also harbor porpoise, herring hag, puffing pig, and snuffer.

Porpoise (n.) A true dolphin (Delphinus); -- often so called by sailors.

Porporino (n.) A composition of quicksilver, tin, and sulphur, forming a yellow powder, sometimes used by mediaeval artists, for the sake of economy, instead of gold.

Porpus (n.) A porpoise.

Porraceous (a.) Resembling the leek in color; greenish.

Porrect (a.) Extended horizontally; stretched out.

Porrection (n.) The act of stretching forth.

Porret (n.) A scallion; a leek or small onion.

Porridge (n.) A food made by boiling some leguminous or farinaceous substance, or the meal of it, in water or in milk, making of broth or thin pudding; as, barley porridge, milk porridge, bean porridge, etc.

Porringer (n.) A porridge dish; esp., a bowl or cup from which children eat or are fed; as, a silver porringer.

Port (n.) A dark red or purple astringent wine made in Portugal. It contains a large percentage of alcohol.

Port (v.) A place where ships may ride secure from storms; a sheltered inlet, bay, or cove; a harbor; a haven. Used also figuratively.

Port (v.) In law and commercial usage, a harbor where vessels are admitted to discharge and receive cargoes, from whence they depart and where they finish their voyages.

Port (n.) A passageway; an opening or entrance to an inclosed place; a gate; a door; a portal.

Port (n.) An opening in the side of a vessel; an embrasure through which cannon may be discharged; a porthole; also, the shutters which close such an opening.

Port (n.) A passageway in a machine, through which a fluid, as steam, water, etc., may pass, as from a valve to the interior of the cylinder of a steam engine; an opening in a valve seat, or valve face.

Ported (imp. & p. p.) of Port

Porting (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Port

Port (v. t.) To carry; to bear; to transport.

Port (v. t.) To throw, as a musket, diagonally across the body, with the lock in front, the right hand grasping the small of the stock, and the barrel sloping upward and crossing the point of the left shoulder; as, to port arms.

Port (n.) The manner in which a person bears himself; deportment; carriage; bearing; demeanor; hence, manner or style of living; as, a proud port.

Port (n.) The larboard or left side of a ship (looking from the stern toward the bow); as, a vessel heels to port. See Note under Larboard. Also used adjectively.

Port (v. t.) To turn or put to the left or larboard side of a ship; -- said of the helm, and used chiefly in the imperative, as a command; as, port your helm.

Portae (pl. ) of Porta

Porta (n.) The part of the liver or other organ where its vessels and nerves enter; the hilus.

Porta (n.) The foramen of Monro.

Portability (n.) The quality or state of being portable; fitness to be carried.

Portable (a.) Capable of being borne or carried; easily transported; conveyed without difficulty; as, a portable bed, desk, engine.

Portable (a.) Possible to be endured; supportable.

Portableness (n.) The quality or state of being portable; portability.

Portace (n.) See Portass.

Portage (n.) A sailor's wages when in port.

Portage (n.) The amount of a sailor's wages for a voyage.

Portage (n.) A porthole.

Portage (n.) The act of carrying or transporting.

Portage (n.) The price of carriage; porterage.

Portage (n.) Capacity for carrying; tonnage.

Portage (n.) A carry between navigable waters. See 3d Carry.

Portage (v. t. & i.) To carry (goods, boats, etc.) overland between navigable waters.

Portage group () A subdivision of the Chemung period in American geology. See Chart of Geology.

Portague (n.) A Portuguese gold coin formerly current, and variously estimated to be worth from three and one half to four and one half pounds sterling.

Portal (n.) A door or gate; hence, a way of entrance or exit, especially one that is grand and imposing.

Portal (n.) The lesser gate, where there are two of different dimensions.

Portal (n.) Formerly, a small square corner in a room separated from the rest of the apartment by wainscoting, forming a short passage to another apartment.

Portal (n.) 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.

Portal (n.) The space, at one end, between opposite trusses when these are terminated by inclined braces.

Portal (n.) A prayer book or breviary; a portass.

Portal (a.) 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.

Portamento (n.) 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 (n.) See Port, carriage, demeanor.

Portass (n.) A breviary; a prayer book.

Portate (a.) Borne not erect, but diagonally athwart an escutcheon; as, a cross portate.

Portative (a.) Portable.

Portative (a.) Capable of holding up or carrying; as, the portative force of a magnet, of atmospheric pressure, or of capillarity.

Portcluse (n.) A portcullis.

Portcrayon (n.) A metallic handle with a clasp for holding a crayon.

Portcullis (n.) 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.

Portcullis (n.) 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.

Portcullised (imp. & p. p.) of Portcullis

Portcullising (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Portcullis

Portcullis (v. t.) To obstruct with, or as with, a portcullis; to shut; to bar.

Porte (n.) 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-cochere (n.) 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-cochere. Also, a porch over a driveway before an entrance door.

Ported (a.) Having gates.

Portegue (n.) See Portague.

Portemonnaie (n.) A small pocketbook or wallet for carrying money.

Portended (imp. & p. p.) of Portend

Portending (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Portend

Portend (v. t.) To indicate (events, misfortunes, etc.) as in future; to foreshow; to foretoken; to bode; -- now used esp. of unpropitious signs.

Portend (v. t.) To stretch out before.

Portension (n.) The act of foreshowing; foreboding.

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