Portly

//ˈpɔɹtli// adj

adj ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    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 more than ordinary dimensions."

  2. 2
    Having a dignified bearing; handsome, imposing. archaic

    "He ſends this Souldans daughter rich and braue, To be my Queene and portly Empereſſe, […]"

Adjective
  1. 1
    euphemisms for ‘fat’ wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
fatadiposebeefybigbig-belliedbloated

Antonyms

All antonyms
gaunt

Example

More examples

"The opium-smoker, still portly and well-dressed, is entreated by his poor wife on bended knees to desist from the disastrous habit."

Etymology

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

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.