portly

English

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

portly

/ˈpɔːtli/ UK
/ˈpɔɹtli/ US
/ˈpoʊɹtli/ US
/ˈpoːtliː/ Australia

Rhymes with -ɔː(ɹ)tli

Where it comes from

From an archaic sense of port (“manner in which a person carries himself; bearing; deportment; carriage”) + -ly.

adjective portlier · portliest

Somewhat fat, pudgy, overweight. Indeed, the poor man has grown ten times as nervous as ever, since he has discovered, on such good authority, who the stout gentleman was. . . . He has anxiously endeavored to call up a recollection of what he saw of that portly personage; and has ever since kept a curious eye on all gentlemen of mo
archaic Having a dignified bearing; handsome, imposing. He ſends this Souldans daughter rich and braue, To be my Queene and portly Empereſſe, […]

Translations

Every language

adj euphemism for fat

Français	fort, corpulent
Deutsch	korpulent, vollschlank, beleibt, stattlich, behäbig, würdevoll

Talk about this word

Cite this

MLA

"portly." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/portly. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

portly. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/portly

Chicago

"portly." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/portly.

BibTeX

@misc{portly_2026,
  title = {portly},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/portly},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}