porter
/ˈpɔːtə/US/ˈpɔɹtɚ/
porter noun: a person who carries luggage and related objects; (historically) one who carried luggage or did manual labour in the transloading of cargo.
Noun (1)
porter (plural porters)
- A person who carries luggage and related objects; (historically) one who carried luggage or did manual labour in the transloading of cargo.
- goods porter
- By the time I reached the train station I was exhausted, but fortunately there was a porter waiting.
- An ant having the specialized role of carrying.
- One who ports software (makes it usable on another platform).
- […] useful only if you are a Perl porter or implementor and you want to check the efficiency of the hashing algorithm.1998, Michael McMillan, Perl from the Ground Up, page 45
Noun (2)
porter (countable and uncountable, plural porters)
- A person in control of the entrance to a building.
- An employee who clears and cleans tables and puts bowling balls away.
- A strong, dark ale, originally favored by porters (etymology 1, sense 1), similar to a stout but less strong.
- Stout (malt brew).
- ‘Here, Pat, give us a g.p., like a good fellow.’ The curate brought him a glass of plain porter. The man drank it at a gulp and asked for a caraway seed.1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “Counterparts”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, page 107
Verb
porter (third-person singular simple present porters, present participle portering, simple past and past participle portered)
- To serve as a porter; to carry.
Proper noun capitalized: Porter
Porter (countable and uncountable, plural Porters)
- A surname originating as an occupation.
- The pixels’ use in a taxpayer context resulted in the “reckless” sharing of legally protected data that could put taxpayers at risk, according to the report by Warren and her Democratic colleagues Sens. Ron Wyden; Richard Blumenthal; Tammy Duckworth; and Sheldon Whitehouse; Sen. Bernie Sanders, an...2023 July 12, Brian Fung, “Tax prep companies shared private taxpayer data with Google and Meta for years, congressional probe finds”, in CNN
- "What do you say to the 40 percent of California voters, who you'll need in order to win, who voted for (President Donald) Trump?" Watts asked. Then Porter said, "How would I need them in order to win, ma'am?" expressing some level of disapproval with the question while letting out a laugh.2025 October 8, Jay Stahl, “Katie Porter goes viral again. This time, for berating a reporter.”, in USA Today
- A unisex given name.
- A town in Westchester Township, Porter County, Indiana.
- A town and village in Oxford County, Maine.
- A minor city in Yellow Medicine County and Lincoln County, Minnesota.
- An unincorporated community in Scott County, Missouri.
- A town in Niagara County, New York, named after Augustus Porter.
- An unincorporated community in Gallia County, Ohio.
- A town in Wagoner County, Oklahoma.
- An unincorporated community in Montgomery County, Texas.
- An unincorporated community in Clay County, West Virginia.
- A town in Rock County, Wisconsin.
Show 3 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
- A number of townships in the United States, listed under Porter Township.
- Ellipsis of Porter County.
- Ellipsis of Porter Crater.
porter meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
porter in Hindi
- person who carries luggage
- क़ुली qulī, कुली kulī, वाहक vāhak, बैरा bairā, मोटिया moṭiyā
porter in Tamil
- போர்ட்டர், போர்டர்
porter in Marathi
- पोर्टर, पोर्टरकडे
porter in Urdu
- person who carries luggage
- قلی qulī
More languagesFewer languages
- porter in Bengali
- পোর্টর, পোর্টার, পোর্টরকে
- porter in Telugu
- పోర్టర్
- porter in Malayalam
- പോർട്ടർ, പോര്ട്ടർ, പോർട്ടറോട്
- porter in Kannada
- ಪೋರ್ಟರ್, ಪೋರ್ಟರ್ಗೆ
- porter in Punjabi
- ਪੋਰਟਰ, ਪੋਰ੍ਟਰ
- porter in Gujarati
- પોર્ટર, પોર્ટરને
- porter in Odia
- ପୋର୍ଟର୍
- porter in Sanskrit
- वाहक vāhaka
- porter in Assamese
- ভাৰী bhari, কুলি kuli, মটীয়া motia
- porter in Nepali
- पोर्टर
- porter in Tagalog
- galaw
- porter in Arabic
- حَمَّال ḥammāl
- porter in Persian
- بارکش bâr-keš, باربر bâr-bar, حمال hammâl, کولبر kul-bar
Examples of porter in a sentence
- Achilles! a drayman, a porter, a very camel.c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, &...
- the unsmotherable delight of all the porters and by - standers1836 March – 1837 October, Charles Dickens, “(please specify the chapter name)”, in The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, London...
- The man who carries your luggage at the station is a "red cap", not a porter.1954 February, Trevor Holloway, “Canada's Transcontinental Routes”, in Railway Magazine, page 130:
- As soon as we had come to a stand in Kamina Station, a swarm of porters pushed their way into the compartment to get my luggage.1958 February, Arthur F. Beckenham, “A Journey in the Belgian Congo”, in Railway Magazine, page 125:
Forms of porter
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | porters |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | porters |
| present participle | portering |
| past participle | portered |
| past | portered |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Porters |
Origin of porter
From Middle English porter, portere, portier, borrowed from Anglo-Norman portour and Old French porteor, from Late Latin portātor, from past participle of Latin portāre (“to carry”). By surface analysis, port (“to carry”) + -er.
From Middle English porter, portere, portare, borrowed from Anglo-Norman portour and Old French portier, from Late Latin portarius (“gatekeeper”), from Latin porta (“gate”).
From Middle English Porter, from porter (“porter”), * From Old French portier (“doorman”), from porte (“door”) * From Old French portour (“bearer”), from porter (“to carry”)
Words formed from porter
- Porterfield
- porterless
- porterlike
- porterly
- portress
- rope porter
- symporter
- teleporter
- underporter
- uniporter
- groom-porter
- hall porter
- light porter
- porterhouse
- portership
- tackle-porter
- ticket-porter
- County of Porter
- Crater Porter
- Porter County
- Porter Crater
- Porter Township
- Township of Porter
Phrases with porter
Words that rhyme with porter
- quarter
- supporter
- mortar
- reporter
- snorter
- transporter
- sporter
- exhorter
- shorter
- sorter
- thwarter
- courter
1 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about porter
- What does porter mean?
- Porter means a person who carries luggage and related objects; (historically) one who carried luggage or did manual labour in the transloading of cargo.
- What is porter in Hindi?
- Porter in Hindi is क़ुली (qulī), कुली (kulī), वाहक (vāhak). See Porter meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use porter in a sentence?
- Achilles! a drayman, a porter, a very camel.
- What part of speech is porter?
- Porter can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce porter?
- Porter is pronounced /ˈpɔɹtɚ/ (US).
- What is the plural of porter?
- The plural of porter is porters.
Words near porter in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: porter (page history and authors); Porter (page history and authors); porter (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); porter (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); porter (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); porter (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); porter (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); porter (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); porter (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); porter (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); porter (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); porter (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-porter.wav.
Cite this entry: “porter.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/porter. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.