How to use portly in a sentence
12 example sentences · adjective
Portly means somewhat fat, pudgy, overweight. Example: “His portly middle section, rising beyond like a small hill, heaved rhythmically.”
Examples of portly by meaning
adjectiveSomewhat fat, pudgy, overweight.
- His portly middle section, rising beyond like a small hill, heaved rhythmically.1913, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 14, in The Little Nugget
- In Heavyweights, Tony Perkis (Ben Stiller) is a fitness guru who installs himself as the über-buff leader of Camp Hope, with the goal of helping portly youngsters shed their saggy stomachs and thunder thighs.2011 July 6, Nick Carbone, “Top 10 Worst Fictional Camp Counselors”, in Time, retrieved 08 May 2014
More sentences with portly
- Godfrey's portly yet buttockless and is in neutrals too, with sporty Royal Elastic-type shoes.2010, Stephanie Clifford-Smith, Kink: A Straight Girl's Investigation. From the entry buttockless
- He is a portly man, though he lives on pottage and mashes.2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate, published 2010, page 328. From the entry pottage
- It’s tempting to compare Abe Foxman with Al Sharpton, another portly, bellicose, melodramatizing defender of ethnic ramparts.2007 January 14, James Traub, “Does Abe Foxman Have an Anti-Anti-Semite Problem?”, in New York Times. From the entry melodramatize
- He was a portly man, and tall, about forty years old, and, after his fashion, handsome.1905, Stanley John Weyman, Starvecrow Farm, Longmans, Green, and Company, page 61. From the entry overmasterful
- Half an hour later, the door of the inner sanctum opened and a portly and important-looking Franco-Levantine walked out and Peter was ushered into Mr.2012, Nestor Pierrakos, Maktoub, →ISBN, page 20. From the entry Franco-Levantine
- “Here comes the Admiral of the Swiss Navy,” remarked the portly, red-faced one, who then proceeded to laugh uproariously at his own wit.2012, John Lloyd Wright, My Father, Frank Lloyd Wright. From the entry admiral of the Swiss Navy
- There were portly foreigners, opulent Jewesses, a sprinkling of the really smart, and several ladies belonging to the oldest profession in the world.1929, Agatha Christie, The Seven Dials Mystery. From the entry world's oldest profession
- They rolled up a portly daddy snowman and a smiling snowmom, then made eleven snowkids, from a nine-foot basketball player down to a snowbaby only six inches tall.2011, Janette Oke, Davis Bunn, Another Homecoming. From the entry snowkid
- He wore two top coats, a broad brimmed hat, and an enormous red travelling shawl, behind the folds of which his portly double chin was entirely hidden.1958 October, “Liverpool to London in 1842”, in Railway Magazine, page 682. From the entry shawl
- He stood there smoking a rolled quirley cigarette held in his left hand, looking back, intently, at the spot where the portly judge had just disappeared down the Pullman aisle.1974, Bill Burchardt, The birth of Logan Station, page 26. From the entry quirley
Meaning of portly
- adjective Somewhat fat, pudgy, overweight.
- adjective Having a dignified bearing; handsome, imposing.
Questions about portly in a sentence
- How do you use portly in a sentence?
- Portly is used as an adjective. For example: “His portly middle section, rising beyond like a small hill, heaved rhythmically.”
- What is a short sentence with portly?
- “He is a portly man, though he lives on pottage and mashes.”
- What does portly mean?
- Portly means somewhat fat, pudgy, overweight.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: portly (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this page: “How to use portly in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/portly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.