Word.ws English Dictionary

pourtray

pourtray is the obsolete form of portray.

Meaning of portray

Verb

portray (third-person singular simple present portrays, present participle portraying, simple past and past participle portrayed)

  1. To paint or draw the likeness of.
    • I will portray a king on horseback.
  2. (figuratively) To represent by an image or look.
    • Upon his browes was pourtraid vgly death,
      And in his eies the furies of his heart,
      That ſhine as Comets, menacing reueng,
      And caſts a pale complexion on his cheeks.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
  3. (figuratively) To describe in words; to convey.
  4. To play a role; to depict a character, person, situation, or event.
    • For my next movie, I will be portraying Shakespeare.
  5. (obsolete) To adorn.

Forms of pourtray

third-person singular presentpourtrays
present participlepourtraying
past participlepourtrayed
pastpourtrayed

Questions about pourtray

What is pourtray the obsolete form of?
Pourtray is the obsolete form of portray.

Words near pourtray in the dictionary

  1. poursuivants
  2. pourtract
  3. pourtracts
  4. pourtraict
  5. pourtraicts
  6. pourtray
  7. pourtrayed
  8. pourtraying
  9. pourtrays
  10. pourveyance
  11. pourveyances

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pourtray (page history and authors); portray (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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Cite this entry: “pourtray.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pourtray. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.