portail Arch.
(ˈpɔəteɪl)
Also 5 -ayl, 6 -aile.
[a. F. portail fa{cced}ade of a church, containing the principal door, also † city-gate:—Latin type *portāculum, dim. of L. porta gate, door. See portal n.1, with which this has been confused in Fr. and Eng.]
= portal n.1 1.
| 1483 Caxton G. de la Tour F vj, She wente vp vnto a hyhe portayl or gate. 1600 Holland Livy x. 368 They caused to be made a brasen portaile in the Capitoll. 1723 Chambers tr. Le Clerc's Treat. Archit. I. 129 The Portail or Frontispiece of a Church, Palace, or any other great Building, shou'd always have a Rise of some Steps. 1749 Rhys Tour Spain & Port. (1760) 61 It..has a noble Portail, in which are Three Gates. 1823 P. Nicholson Pract. Build. 590 Portail, the face of a church, on the side in which the great door is formed. |