porterhouse
Americannoun
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Also called porterhouse steak. a choice piece of beef with a conspicuous T -shaped bone, cut from the short loin and similar to a T-bone steak but with a larger portion of tenderloin.
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Archaic. a house at which porter and other liquors are retailed.
noun
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Also called: porterhouse steak. a thick choice steak of beef cut from the middle ribs or sirloin
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(formerly) a place in which porter, beer, etc, and sometimes chops and steaks, were served
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of porterhouse
porter 3 + house; the archaic sense porterhouse ( def. 2 ) was first recorded in 1725–35, and the current sense porterhouse ( def. 1 ) in 1850–55
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How does porterhouse compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A 36-ounce porterhouse steak for two rings up at $210.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 23, 2026
That leaves a lot of leeway for a menu, the ability — as Masters winners from Scottie Scheffler to Tiger Woods did — to default to bone-in ribeye or porterhouse steaks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 15, 2025
There will be grilled dry-aged porterhouse, rib-eye and other marbled cuts at the brewery on weekends as well.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 19, 2023
She's boiled dozens of eggs, seared more porterhouse steaks than she cares to recall, and tasted enough types of bacon to concern a cardiologist.
From Salon ● Nov. 28, 2021
I don’t know if I love anything truly any more beyond the porterhouse at Peter Luger’s and the cheese enchilada at El Parador’s.
From "The Princess Bride" by William Goldman
“And then we had a bunch of porterhouses on the table. Everyone was loving that, just to kind of pick on. It’s a great family style.”
From Seattle Times ● May 19, 2021
What does he mean, sendin' Miss Sally porterhouses, when she only orders flank steak, like he was wrappin' up love and affection into every steak?
From Kilo : being the love story of Eliph' Hewlitt, book agent by Butler, Ellis Parker
Money—I could sleep in only one bed at a time, and of what worth was an income of a hundred porterhouses a day when I could eat only one?
From John Barleycorn by London, Jack
Well, there goes as pretty a bunch of porterhouses as I'd want to put tooth to.
From Judith of the Plains by Manning, Marie
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
