portages

Noun

portage (countable and uncountable, plural portages)

1. An act of carrying, especially the carrying of a boat overland between two waterways.
2. The route used for such carrying.
3. A charge made for carrying something.
   • gaining thereby the charge of portage; was a great benefit to them1661, John Fell, The life of the most learned, reverend, and pious Dr. H. Hammond
4. Carrying capacity; tonnage.
   • Onely the shippe that came thither payde a small thing according to her portage, aud euery yeere in the port of Orisa were laden fiue and twentie or thirtie ships great and smal with ryce and diuers sortes of fine white bumbaste cloth[…]1589, Richard Hakluyt, The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation, […], London: […] George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, deputies to Christopher Barker, […], →OCLC
5. The wages paid to a sailor when in port, or for a voyage.
6. A porthole.
   • Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
     Let pry through the portage of the head
     Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
     As fearfully as doth a galled rock
     O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
     Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...

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