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# portly

«portly» in Mova's school dictionary: **Rather fat, with a large round body; a polite or…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

adjective (portly, portlier, portliest)

### meaning for a pupil

(of a person, usually an older man) Rather fat, with a large round body; a polite or old-fashioned word. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/portly/#m1)

### sense in the lessons

In stories «portly» describes a character, often a cheerful older gentleman or a mayor — it paints a picture kindly. In real life calling people fat is rude; portly is gentler but still a comment on someone's body.

### examples

- A portly gentleman sat in the armchair. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/portly/#x1)
- The portly innkeeper laughed at the joke. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/portly/#x2)
- Father Christmas is often shown as portly and jolly. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/portly/#x3)
- The portly mayor puffed up the stairs. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/portly/#x4)
- The story's portly cook loved her own cakes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/portly/#x5)
- His broad, portly person, hid the slender, lovely Babette; but she came forward and glanced at him with her bright, dark eyes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/portly/#x6)

### note

Polite, old-fashioned: like «stout», «plump», «rotund». Not about «port» (harbour). Avoid talking about real people's bodies.

### In the corpora

- [Portly is comforted by the promise of «a jaunt on the river in Mr.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/51-willows-ch7-part3-the-gift-of-forgetfulness/13/)
- ["Portly" is an old-fashioned word for a fat man.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/10-weight-and-babies/10/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «portly» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/P/portly/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.