Word.ws English Dictionary

porter's knot

porter's knot noun: a double shoulder pad worn with a strap around the forehead, used by hawkers and market porters for supporting burdens on the head.

Noun

porter's knot (plural porter's knots)

  1. (obsolete) A double shoulder pad worn with a strap around the forehead, used by hawkers and market porters for supporting burdens on the head.
    • Mr. Wilcox, the bookseller, on being informed by him that his intention was to get his livelihood as an authour, eyed his robust frame attentively, and with a significant look, said, ‘You had better buy a porter's knot.’1793, James Boswell, Life of Johnson, Oxford, published 2008, page 74

Forms of porter's knot

pluralporter's knots

Questions about porter's knot

What does porter's knot mean?
Porter's knot means a double shoulder pad worn with a strap around the forehead, used by hawkers and market porters for supporting burdens on the head.
What part of speech is porter's knot?
Porter's knot is a noun.
What is the plural of porter's knot?
The plural of porter's knot is porter's knots.

Words near porter's knot in the dictionary

  1. porteous
  2. porteouses
  3. porter
  4. Porter County
  5. Porter Ranch
  6. porter's knot
  7. porter's lodge
  8. Porter-Duff compositing
  9. Portera
  10. porterage
  11. porterages

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: porter's knot (page history and authors). 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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