porteress

[pawr-ter-is, pohr-]

noun

1. portress.

Gender Note

See -ess.

Example Sentences

Edward Joseph Robinson, his father, was a ticket collector at Liverpool Street, Farringdon and Baker Street for 46 years and his mother, Mary, worked at Kilburn station as a porteress during World War I when the network first recruited women.

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After ringing at the street-door till her patience was nearly exhausted, it was opened by a sulky-looking white girl, who performed the office of porteress with a very ill grace, hiding herself behind it because she was not in full dress; and to Harriet's inquiry if Mrs. Accleton was at home, murmuring in a most repulsive tone that "she believed she was."

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The porteress then led me into a hall, where the Prior was seated in an arm-chair, surrounded by his brethren.

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He knocked long for admission at the porter's lodge, but the porteress seeing such a calumny on God's handiwork outside, and scenting appeals for charity, eyed him disfavourably through the little cross-barred spy-window and let him knock.

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Such conduct from men to women contrasts strangely with the courtesy so often extended even to beggars; and a woman of the people, a servant or a porteress, will invite the beggar who is interrupting your conversation to desist, with such phrases as: "Move aside a little; Do me this pleasure."

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