Port
Webster's Dictionary [1]
(1): ( n.) A passageway; an opening or entrance to an inclosed place; a gate; a door; a portal.
(2): ( v.) A place where ships may ride secure from storms; a sheltered inlet, bay, or cove; a harbor; a haven. Used also figuratively.
(3): ( n.) The manner in which a person bears himself; deportment; carriage; bearing; demeanor; hence, manner or style of living; as, a proud port.
(4): ( v.) In law and commercial usage, a harbor where vessels are admitted to discharge and receive cargoes, from whence they depart and where they finish their voyages.
(5): ( v. t.) To throw, as a musket, diagonally across the body, with the lock in front, the right hand grasping the small of the stock, and the barrel sloping upward and crossing the point of the left shoulder; as, to port arms.
(6): ( n.) The larboard or left side of a ship (looking from the stern toward the bow); as, a vessel heels to port. See Note under Larboard. Also used adjectively.
(7): ( v. t.) To carry; to bear; to transport.
(8): ( n.) An opening in the side of a vessel; an embrasure through which cannon may be discharged; a porthole; also, the shutters which close such an opening.
(9): ( n.) A dark red or purple astringent wine made in Portugal. It contains a large percentage of alcohol.
(10): ( v. t.) To turn or put to the left or larboard side of a ship; - said of the helm, and used chiefly in the imperative, as a command; as, port your helm.
(11): ( n.) A passageway in a machine, through which a fluid, as steam, water, etc., may pass, as from a valve to the interior of the cylinder of a steam engine; an opening in a valve seat, or valve face.
King James Dictionary [2]
PORT, n. L. portus, porto, to carry L. fero Eng. to bear.
1. A harbor a haven any bay,cove, inlet or recess of the sea or of a lake or the mouth of a river, which ships or vessels can enter, and where they can lie safe from injury by storms. Ports may be natural or artificial, and sometimes works of art, as piers and moles, are added to the natural shores of a place to render a harbor more safe. The word port is generally applied to spacious harbors much resorted to be ships, as the port of London or of Boston, and not to small bays or coves which are entered occasionally, or in stress of weather only. Harbor includes all places of safety for shipping. 2. A gate. L. porta.
From their ivory port the cherubim
Forth issued.
3. An embrasure or opening in the side of a ship of war, through which cannon are discharged a port-hole. 4. The lid which shuts a port-hole. 5. Carriage air mien manner of movement or walk demeanor external appearance as a proud port the port of a gentleman.
Their port was more than human.
With more terrific port
Thou walkest.
6. In seamen's language,the larboard or left side of a ship as in the phrase,"the ship heels to port." "Port the helm," is an order to put the helm to the larboard side. 7. A kind of wine made in Portugal so called from Oporto.
of the voice, in music, the faculty or habit of making the shakes, passages and diminutions, in which the beauty of a song consists.
PORT, To carry in form as ported spears.
1. To turn or put to the left or larboard side of a ship. See the noun, No 6 It is used in the imperative.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible [3]
PORT . The ‘port’ of Nehemiah 2:13 is a ‘gate,’ the same Heb. word being translated’ gate’ in the same verse. Cf. Pr.-Bk. [Note: Prayer Book.] version of Psalms 9:14 ‘Within the ports of the daughter of Sion.’
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [4]
is the rendering in Nehemiah 2:13 of the Heb. Sha'Uar, שִׁעִר, elsewhere rendered "gate" (q.v.), as twice in the same verse. These gates of the cities, and the unoccupied spaces on which they opened, served in all Hebrew antiquity for places of public assembling of the citizens (comp. the Forum, Ἀγορά, of the Greeks and Romans). In the East this is still the custom, the gates taking the place of the coffeehouses and other places of resort among the Western nations ( Genesis 19:1; 1 Samuel 4:18; 1 Samuel 9:18; Job 29:7; Jeremiah 37:7). There the people came together in great numbers when any public calamity occurred ( 2 Maccabees 3:19), there the judges heard causes and complaints ( Deuteronomy 21:19 sq.; Deuteronomy 22:15 sq.; Isaiah 29:21; Job 21:21; Psalms 137:5; Amos 5:12; Amos 5:15; Zechariah 8:16; Proverbs 22:22), and there deeds which required legal sanction, especially important contracts, were performed ( Genesis 23:10; Genesis 23:18; Deuteronomy 25:7; Ruth 4:1; Ruth 4:11; comp. the early Germans, Grimm, Deutsche Rechtsallterthü Mer, p. 104 sq.; and see Hist, Milarokko, p. 239). There princes stood to receive homage ( 2 Samuel 19:8; but see below), or for public discussion of important affairs ( 1 Kings 22:10), and markets were held in the vicinity ( 2 Kings 7:1; Arvieux, Nachr. 5, 186; Rosenmü ller, Horgen II. 6, 272; Jacobi, De foro in portis [Leips. 1714], in Ugolino, Thes. vol. 25). At the gate public announcements were made ( Jeremiah 17:19; Proverbs 1:21; Proverbs 8:3).
Idolatries, too, were sometimes practiced here ( 2 Kings 23:8), just as in Catholic cities altars are placed at the gates. On the whole, we must consider the gate, not as a mere port or entrance, but as a strong defense, and as connected with an open place within; perhaps even with benches (Hist, Marokklo, ut sup.). They were barred with strong bolts and posts, (See City), and often built over ( 2 Samuel 18:33) with watch-towers ( 2 Samuel 18:24 sq.). Gate-keepers are mentioned, at least in Jerusalem, with some political duties and powers ( Jeremiah 37:13; Nehemiah 13:19). On the other hand, in 2 Samuel 15:2 (and perhaps in 19:8), the allusion is not to a city gate, but to that of a palace in the royal city; and in Esther 3:2; Daniel 2:49, the word is used, according to a tisage still customary in the East, for the king's court (Tulai E.G., in Latin, is a similar synecdoche; conip. also the Arabic Gate Of Rashid for court, in Elmacin, Hist. Sacra. p. 120; see Lü deke. Tü Rk. Reich, 1, 281). To sit at the palace door or gate ( Esther 2:19; Esther 2:21; Esther 4:2; Esther 5:9; Esther 5:13 sq.; Esther 6:10), among the Persians, was to wait in the hall or vestibule of the king. Not only courtiers and attendants, but even high officers of the government were found there (Herod. 3, 20). (See Door).
