Definition of portal
- n. - A door or gate; hence, a way of entrance or exit,
especially one that is grand and imposing.
- n. - The lesser gate, where there are two of different
dimensions.
- n. - Formerly, a small square corner in a room separated from
the rest of the apartment by wainscoting, forming a short passage to
another apartment.
- n. - By analogy with the French portail, used by recent writers
for the whole architectural composition which surrounds and includes
the doorways and porches of a church.
- n. - The space, at one end, between opposite trusses when these
are terminated by inclined braces.
- n. - A prayer book or breviary; a portass.
- a. - Of or pertaining to a porta, especially the porta of the
liver; as, the portal vein, which enters the liver at the porta, and
divides into capillaries after the manner of an artery.