a person hired to carry burdens or baggage, as at a railroad station or a hotel.
a person who does cleaning and maintenance work in a building, factory, store, etc.
an attendant in a railroad parlor car or sleeping car.
Cole, 1893–1964, U.S. composer.
David, 1780–1843, U.S. naval officer.
his son David Dixon 1813–91, Union naval officer in the Civil War.
Edwin Stanton, 1870–1941, U.S. film director.
Gene Gene Stratton Porter, 1868–1924, U.S. novelist.
Sir George, 1920–2002, British chemist: Nobel Prize 1967.
Katherine Anne, 1890–1980, U.S. writer.
Noah, 1811–92, U.S. educator, writer, and lexicographer.
Rodney Robert, 1917–85, British biochemist: Nobel Prize in medicine 1972.
William Sydney O. Henry, 1862–1910, U.S. short-story writer.
a male given name.
a person in charge of a gate or door; doorman or gatekeeper
a person employed by a university or college as a caretaker and doorkeeper who also answers enquiries
a person in charge of the maintenance of a building, esp a block of flats
Also called: ostiary. RC Church a person ordained to what was formerly the lowest in rank of the minor orders
Cole. 1893–1964, US composer and lyricist of musical comedies. His most popular songs include Night and Day and Let's do It
George, Baron Porter of Luddenham. 1920–2002, British chemist, who shared a Nobel prize for chemistry in 1967 for his work on flash photolysis
Katherine Anne. 1890–1980, US short-story writer and novelist. Her best-known collections of stories are Flowering Judas (1930) and Pale Horse, Pale Rider (1939)
Rodney Robert. 1917–85, British biochemist: shared the Nobel prize for physiology or medicine 1972 for determining the structure of an antibody
William Sidney. original name of O. Henry
a person employed to carry luggage, parcels, supplies, etc, esp at a railway station or hotel
(in hospitals) a person employed to move patients from place to place
a railway employee who waits on passengers, esp in a sleeper
a manual labourer
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English portour, portur(e), porter, from Anglo-French portour, porter, from Middle French portour, from Old French porteour, from Late Latin portātōr- (stem of portātor, a derivative of portāre “to carry”; see also port 5, -or 2
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English porter, porter(e), portar(e), from Anglo-French porter, portour, from Old French portier, from Late Latin portārius “gatekeeper,” equivalent to porta “door” + -ārius adjective and noun suffix; see also port 4, -er 2
First recorded in 1720–30; short for porter's ale, apparently originally brewed for porters
A porter is someone who carries luggage for tourists. If you ever travel by train across the country, you'll be grateful to the porter. The person at an airport, train station, or hotel who's paid to help with your luggage is a porter. It's also the name of a train employee who assists passengers traveling in sleeper cars. The word porter comes from the Latin portatorem, one who carries. The dark, sweet beer known as porter or porter's ale comes from the same root word — because its taste and low price was the favorite of porters and other laborers.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The commute to his Manhattan porter job is convenient, too.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026
A transit porter and motorman with the New York City subway in the 1980s, Mr. Naiden was active in a tiny communist cell within the union, endorsing free fares and encouraging turnstile hopping.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026
Scrawled in chalk in the list of draft beers was the Edmund Fitzgerald porter, a longtime brew from the Great Lakes Brewing Co.
From Slate ● Nov. 10, 2025
The unchanged names in the series, which premieres Thursday on Netflix, belong to the four children of Benjamin Lee Guinness, whose grandfather created the signature porter in 1778.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2025
Forty minutes later she was inside the physics building once more, arguing with the porter, but this time she had a trump card.
From "The Subtle Knife" by Philip Pullman
"I get on the subway with my big bag and go home with my cheap groceries. I mean, I'm so happy. This is amazing," Porter said.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
They serve as a stand-in for Porter himself, who, though absent in the flesh, nevertheless is the central personage around which these myriad dynamics revolve.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
Jean's youngest son Michael Porter got a call from his older brother Robert to tell him the news: "I was like, what do you mean she's missing?"
From BBC ● Jul. 4, 2026
When Bill Porter, E*Trade’s founder, helped launch an electronic options exchange in 2000, young traders understood that something better had arrived.
From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026
Mr. Porter said funerals can be a part of the healing process.
From "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher
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.
