port1
/pɔːt
/noun
1A town or city with a harbour or access to navigable water where ships load or unload: the French port of Toulon [in place names]: Port Elizabeth...
- Over 33 ships are waiting at Colombian ports to load and unload cargo.
- Voting patterns suggest that market towns, such as ports and cities located on rivers, favored penitentiaries.
- British agents developed a one-man midget submarine specifically to target enemy shipping anchored in ports or inshore waters.
Synonyms
seaport, port city/town;
French entrepôt
1.1A harbour: [as modifier]: Belfast’s port facilities...
- Speaking of Umm Qasr, work continues on the upgrade of the port facilities.
- The special facilities, which could be drained to allow repairs on ships' hulls, have been closed and the heavy machinery dismantled and moved to Liverpool's port.
- Our call was in the nearby port facility of Puerto Cones, which served as a launching point for excursions to the nearby Mayan ruins.
Synonyms
harbour, dock, docks, haven, mooring, jetty, pier, marina;
anchorage, roads
archaic hithe
rare moorage, harbourage, roadstead
Phrases
any port in a storm
port of entry
Origin
Old English, from Latin portus 'haven, harbour', reinforced in Middle English by Old French.
Latin portus ‘haven or harbour’ is the source of our word port. Its nautical use to refer to the left side of a ship, the opposite of starboard (OE from ‘steer board’—early ships were steered with a paddle over the right side), dates from the mid 16th century and probably comes from the idea that this was the side of the ship where the loading hatch was fitted and was turned towards the quay when the ship was in port. It replaced an older word larboard, hardly surprising given the potential for confusion between the similar-sounding ‘starboard!’ and ‘larboard!’ when shouted into the teeth of a gale. While the second half of larboard is ‘board’, the origin of the first part is not known. The drink port is a shortened form of Oporto in Portugal, from which the wine was shipped. See also porter
Rhymes
port2
/pɔːt/(also port wine)
noun [mass noun]
A strong, sweet dark red (occasionally brown or white) fortified wine, originally from Portugal, typically drunk as a dessert wine: they settled down to a final glass of port [count noun]: tawny ports do not need decanting...
- In particular, I want to drive up the Douro valley from Porto to the vineyards where the grapes for port wine are grown, and I want to see more of the estuaries of the Galician coast.
- I wished for some kick in the red-chile steak butter I asked for with my bison filet, as a substitute for the advertised port wine sauce.
- Apart from the seasonal connotations that cinnamon, oranges, Stilton and mulled port wine have, I think Stilton might make an even tangier and more contrasting accompaniment to the sweet jelly.
Origin
Shortened form of Oporto, a major port from which the wine is shipped.
port3
/pɔːt/noun
The side of a ship or aircraft that is on the left when one is facing forward: the ferry was listing to port [as modifier]: the port side of the aircraft...The opposite of starboard.
- The lumbering shuttle lazily side slipped from port to starboard and back in futile attempts to shake off pursuit.
- Pressure and gravity refueling receptacles are installed in the aft port fuel cell.
- One of them noticed an object in the water outboard and to port of the wake, astern of the vessel.
verb [with object]
Turn (a ship or its helm) to port: the yacht immediately raised all sail and ported her helm...
- The captain slowed and ported the vessel to pass around the monolith, and everyone took a good look at the horrid idol.
- Reaching the dock where my ship was being ported, Steve and I got on board.
- The US Supreme Court has heard a case concerning whether the Americans With Disabilities Act applies to foreign cruise ships porting in US harbors.
Origin
Mid 16th century: probably originally the side containing an entry port or facing the port (quayside) for loading.
port4
/pɔːt/noun
1An opening in the side of a ship for boarding or loading.Then came the rumbling of the heavy artillery being rolled down the street to the loading ports; the men in the way scattering like flies....
- The dull thuds of boarding shuttles connecting to the liner's docking ports reverberated through the ship.
- Once you learn to avoid the numerous ports and hatches, you will find this a very safe and easy deck to move about on, particularly while sailing at normal angles of heel.
1.1A porthole: the cabin has rectangular ports set just below sheer in each quarter...
- Aside from the companionway, there is no ventilation, windows or ports so if the companionway were to be closed in inclement weather the cabin would get uncomfortable.
- Deck hardware and fixed cabin ports are bronze and there are teak louvered doors leading to the cabin.
- He stared out the port a long time before he heard her come below.
1.2 (also gun port) An opening in the body of an aircraft or in a wall or armoured vehicle through which a gun may be fired.Crowstep gables and a small gun port in the back wall are a structural reminder of the transition from fortified house to mansion....
- The gun port was twice its normal size, with jagged wooden chards to frame the opening.
- She grabbed up a coil of rope on her way up the ladder and looked out over the side of the boat, then tied one end of the rope around the mainmast and dropped it through the gun port.
1.3An opening for the passage of steam, liquid, or gas: loss of fuel from the exhaust port...
- Turbos are closely coupled to the exhaust ports.
- Steam and smoke emanated from the different ports and hoses that came loose, filling the small area around it with a somewhat vague but visible mist.
- The right wing could only operate at fifty percent, and also had several damaged servomotors, and melted exhaust ports.
Synonyms
aperture, opening, outlet, inlet, socket, vent, passage, porthole, trap, embrasure, door, gate
2 Electronics A socket in a computer network into which a device can be plugged: a communications port for optional cellular and other wireless modules...
- Each repeater examines its local network ports to computer stations such as PC's to determine if any are inputting data to the repeater.
- The network is maintained using infrared, X10 protocol and even USB communication ports, he says.
- The data transfer network comprises a plurality of communication ports and a plurality of modules.
3chiefly Scottish A gate or gateway, especially into a walled city.
Origin
Old English (in the sense 'gateway'), from Latin porta 'gate'; reinforced in Middle English by Old French porte. The later sense 'opening in the side of a ship' led to the general sense 'aperture'.
port5
/pɔːt/verb [with object and adverbial of direction]
1 Computing Transfer (software) from one system or machine to another: the software can be ported to practically any platform...
- I went to art school, got into programming during the dot com bubble, moved into games development, hopped over to pre-press programming and I now work as a programmer porting software.
- It provides a way of writing device-independent graphical and windowing software that can be ported easily from one machine to another.
- Likewise, porting software from one architecture to another is complex, rare, and costly, Weber added.
2Carry or convey: we ported the milk cans from the plentiful water supply of the gym...
- Driving taxis and buses, porting baggage at the airport, and working in shops are among the types of employment that the Hageners pursue.
2.1 [with object, often in imperative] Military Carry (a rifle or other weapon) diagonally across and close to the body with the barrel or blade near the left shoulder: Detail! For inspection—port arms!
noun
1 Military The position required by an order to port a weapon: Parker had his rifle at the port
2 literary A person’s carriage or bearing: she has the proud port of a princess
3 Computing A transfer of software from one system or machine to another: the first port of a commercial database to this operating system...
- It was even beginning to attract ports of commercial applications software.
- Without actually sitting down and benchmarking it, it feels identical to the laptop's ports in terms of transfer speed.
- The rest of the guys were the established players and didn't ask their customers to suffer huge software ports.
Phrases
at port arms
Origin
Middle English (in (sense 2 of the noun)): from Old French port 'bearing, gait', from the verb porter, from Latin portare 'carry'. The verb (from French porter) dates from the mid 16th century.
port6
/pɔːt/noun Australian informal
A suitcase or travelling bag: she packed her ports and walked out...
- And mum cut all those lunches and packed them in your port.
- And that afternoon my ports were packed, and I hooked on the boat, and our daughter arrived, and away we went.
- Not only had she succeeded in finding me a sensible port, she had got it for a bargain price, in her home town, and in the presence of our grandmother, The Queen of Shoppers.
Origin
Early 20th century: abbreviation of portmanteau.