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port

Pronunciation: /pɔːt/

The English word “port” has 20 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A place on the coast at which ships can shelter, or dock to load and unload cargo or passengers.
  2. A town or city containing such a place, a port city.
  3. The left-hand side of a vessel, including aircraft, when one is facing forward. Used to unambiguously refer to directions relative to the vessel structure, rather than to a person or object on board.
  4. A sweep rower that primarily rows with an oar on the port side.
  5. An entryway or gate.
  6. An opening or doorway in the side of a ship, especially for boarding or loading; an embrasure through which a cannon may be discharged; a porthole.
  7. A small medical appliance installed beneath the skin, connected to a vein by a catheter, and used to inject drugs or to draw blood samples.
  8. A narrow opening between other players' bowls or stones wide enough for a delivered bowl or stone to pass through.
  9. An opening where a connection (such as with a pipe) is made.
  10. An opening with a valve seat such that a valve can control the flow of fluid through the opening.
  11. A logical or physical construct in and from which data are transferred. Computer port on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
  12. A female connector of an electronic device, into which a cable's male connector can be inserted.
  13. A number that delimits a connection for specific processes or parts of a network service.

adjective

  1. Of or relating to port, the left-hand side of a vessel when facing the bow.

verb

  1. To turn or put to the left or larboard side of a ship; said of the helm.
  2. To dock at a port.
  3. To carry, bear, bring, or transport. See porter.
  4. To hold or carry (a weapon) with both hands so that it lies diagonally across the front of the body, with the barrel or similar part near the left shoulder and the right hand grasping the small of the stock; or, to throw (the weapon) into this position on command.
  5. To adapt, modify, or recode to work on a different platform.
  6. To carry or transfer (an existing telephone number) from one service provider to another.

Etymology

From Old English port, borrowed from Latin portus (“port, harbour”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pértus (“crossing”) (and thus a distant doublet of ford). The directional sense, attested since at least the 1500s, derives from ancient vessels with the steering oar on the right (see etymology of starboard), which therefore had to moor with their left sides facing the dock or wharf. Doublet…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.