From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Portal \Por"tal\, a. (Anat.)
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.
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Note: Portal is applied to other veins which break up into
capillaries; as, the renal portal veins in the frog.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Portal \Por"tal\, n. [OF. portal, F. portail, LL. portale, fr.
L. porta a gate. See {Port} a gate.]
1. A door or gate; hence, a way of entrance or exit,
especially one that is grand and imposing.
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Thick with sparkling orient gems
The portal shone. --Milton.
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From out the fiery portal of the east. --Shak.
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2. (Arch.)
(a) The lesser gate, where there are two of different
dimensions.
(b) Formerly, a small square corner in a room separated
from the rest of the apartment by wainscoting, forming
a short passage to another apartment.
(c) 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.
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3. (Bridge Building) The space, at one end, between opposite
trusses when these are terminated by inclined braces.
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4. A prayer book or breviary; a portass. [Obs.]
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{Portal bracing} (Bridge Building), a combination of struts
and ties which lie in the plane of the inclined braces at
a portal, serving to transfer wind pressure from the upper
parts of the trusses to an abutment or pier of the bridge.
[1913 Webster]
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
portal
n 1: a grand and imposing entrance (often extended
metaphorically); "the portals of the cathedral"; "the
portals of heaven"; "the portals of success"
2: a site that the owner positions as an entrance to other sites
on the internet; "a portal typically has search engines and
free email and chat rooms etc." [syn: {portal site},
{portal}]
3: a short vein that carries blood into the liver [syn: {portal
vein}, {hepatic portal vein}, {portal}, {vena portae}]
From German-English FreeDict Dictionary ver. 0.3.3 [fd-deu-eng]:
Portal /pɔrtaːl/
portal
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