Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The carrying of burdens or goods as done by porters.
  • noun The charge for this activity.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The business or duties of a porter or doorkeeper.
  • noun Carrying; carriage; transportation; porters' work.
  • noun The cost of carrying; money charged for porters' services.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The work of a porter; the occupation of a carrier or of a doorkeeper.
  • noun Money charged or paid for the carriage of burdens or parcels by a porter.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The transportation of goods by a porter
  • noun The charge for this transportation

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the charge for carrying burdens by porters
  • noun the transportation of burdens by porters

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Even when the carriage is paid, there is still porterage from the station to the place of delivery, which cannot be prepaid - sixpence, or eightpence, or a shilling, according to the bulk.

    Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle 1883

  • Because of the porterage problems, they had to abandon their boat along the way and could only look on from the shore.

    To the Source Judith Flanders 2011

  • The man who plunders is no longer a man, he is a machine for porterage, and all who list may treat him as a slave.

    Cyropaedia 2007

  • Further, let us get rid of all superfluous baggage, save only what we require for the sake of war, or meat and drink, so that as many of us as possible may be under arms, and as few as possible doing porterage.

    Anabasis 2007

  • And I set her there in her favourite place, by the sweet-scented wood-fire; and she paid me porterage without my even asking her; and for all the beauty of the rain, I was fain to stay with her; until our

    Lorna Doone Richard Doddridge 2004

  • It was already beyond maternal porterage, and Caddles, staggering indeed, but grinning triumphantly at quantitatively inferior parents, bore it back to the free-sitting occupied by his party.

    The Food of the Gods and how it came to Earth Herbert George 2004

  • When Skinsky had come to him, he had taken him to the ship and handed over the box, so as to save porterage.

    Dracula 2003

  • The demands for porterage were so exorbitant next morning, that we set out on foot under the guidance of Tom Peter.

    Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo 2003

  • Like the other men in the house, he knew of the carrying to and fro of the great chest, and had got it into his head that the care exercised in its porterage indicated that it was full of treasure.

    The Lair of the White Worm 2003

  • Young boys skipped around us like tadpoles, offering porterage, Chiclets, hotels, cars, their sister, anything our foreign hearts desired.

    Walls of Silence Philip Jolowicz 2002

Comments

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  • Usage on wharfage.

    October 12, 2008

  • I'm afraid I'll die before I get to use this word.

    October 4, 2012