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Portal   /pˈɔrtəl/   Listen
noun
Portal  n.  
1.
A door or gate; hence, a way of entrance or exit, especially one that is grand and imposing. "Thick with sparkling orient gems The portal shone." "From out the fiery portal of the east."
2.
(Arch.)
(a)
The lesser gate, where there are two of different dimensions.
(b)
Formerly, a small square corner in a room separated from the rest of the apartment by wainscoting, forming a short passage to another apartment.
(c)
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.
3.
(Bridge Building) The space, at one end, between opposite trusses when these are terminated by inclined braces.
4.
A prayer book or breviary; a portass. (Obs.)
Portal bracing (Bridge Building), a combination of struts and ties which lie in the plane of the inclined braces at a portal, serving to transfer wind pressure from the upper parts of the trusses to an abutment or pier of the bridge.



adjective
Portal  adj.  (Anat.) 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. Note: Portal is applied to other veins which break up into capillaries; as, the renal portal veins in the frog.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Portal" Quotes from Famous Books



... terraces of yellow limestone full of vines and fruit trees; through the oak groves of Carine and the dark Gates of Zagros, walled in by precipices; into the ancient city of Chala, where the people of Samaria had been kept in captivity long ago; and out again by the mighty portal, riven through the encircling hills, where he saw the image of the High Priest of the Magi sculptured on the wall of rock, with hand uplifted as if to bless the centuries of pilgrims; past the entrance of the narrow defile, filled from end to end with orchards of peaches ...
— The Story of the Other Wise Man • Henry Van Dyke

... of citizens beloved, to strangers hospitable, the house in whose praise will I now celebrate happy Corinth, portal of Isthmian Poseidon and nursery of splendid youth. For therein dwell Order, and her sisters, sure foundation of states, Justice and likeminded Peace, dispensers of wealth to men, wise Themis' golden daughters. ...
— The Extant Odes of Pindar • Pindar

... went to the palace of the king and stood by the portal. The sentinel caressed it, and said, "You are a ...
— The Junior Classics, Volume 1 • Willam Patten

... out the light of day. You look up and see a mere strip of blue sky, but trailing plants reaching far downward from window-sills, one above the other, light up the gloom with many a patch of vivid green. You venture down some dim passage and come suddenly upon a little court where an old Gothic portal with quaint sculptures, or a Renaissance doorway with armorial bearings carved over the lintel, bears testimony to the grandeur and wealth of those who once lived in the now grimy, dilapidated, poverty-stricken mansion. Pretentious dwellings ...
— Wanderings by southern waters, eastern Aquitaine • Edward Harrison Barker

... drawbacks. Here the archaeologist will not grudge several days. Ruined as it is, the ancient abbey may be reconstructed in the mind's eye by the help of what we see before us. The fragments of crumbling wall, the noble tower and portal, the delicately sculptured pillars, cornices, and arches, enable us to build up the whole, just as Cuvier made out an entire skeleton from the examination of a single bone. These grand architectural fragments have not been neglected by ...
— East of Paris - Sketches in the Gatinais, Bourbonnais, and Champagne • Matilda Betham-Edwards


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