portiere

por·tière

or por·tiere (pôr-tyâr′)

A heavy curtain hung across a doorway.

[French, feminine of portier, porter, from Old French, from Late Latin portārius, from Latin porta, gate; see per- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

portière

(ˌpɔːtɪˈɛə; French pɔrtjɛr)

(Furniture) a curtain hung in a doorway

[C19: via French from Medieval Latin portāria, from Latin porta door]

ˌportiˈèred adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

por•tiere

or por•tière

(pɔrˈtyɛər, -ˈtɪər, poʊr-; ˌpɔr tiˈɛər, ˌpoʊr-)

n.

a curtain hung in a doorway to replace the door or for decoration.

[1835–45; < French portière < Medieval Latin portāria, n. use of feminine of Late Latin portārius]

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Noun

portiere - a heavy curtain hung across a doorway

curtain, drape, drapery, pall, mantle - hanging cloth used as a blind (especially for a window)

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References in classic literature ?

(through a door that was always open, and a looped- back yellow damask portiere) the unexpected vista of a bedroom with a huge low bed upholstered like a sofa, and a toilet-table with frivolous lace flounces and a gilt-framed mirror.

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He turned slowly back into the room, and limping rather more than was usual with him, he pushed aside a portiere and passed into a charmingly furnished country drawing-room.

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He thought, "I'll wait till she is gone"--and stepped back within the perpendicular folds of a portiere.

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She noticed the movement of the other portiere and asked Newman who had been entertaining him.

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We were in Milverton's study, and a portiere at the farther side showed the entrance to his bedroom.

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The marble washstand, the dressing table, the little sofa, the tables, the bronze clock on the chimney piece, the window curtains, and the portieres were all new and expensive.

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And those Astrakhan rug portieres. And Clementina has such a funny little cough.

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Harvey had a notion that the east coast of his native land, from Mount Desert south, was populated chiefly by people who took their horses there in the summer and entertained in country-houses with hardwood floors and Vantine portieres. He laughed at the ghost- tales, - not as much as he would have done a month before, - but ended by sitting still and shuddering.

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The floor was of tesselated marble, smooth as glass, and from the walls strange shapes loomed out, woven into huge portieres in rich, harmonious colors, or gleaming from paintings, wonderful and mysterious-looking in the half-light, purple and red and golden, like sunset glimmers in a shadowy forest.

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And with these words he disappeared behind one of the tapestried portieres. As the door opened, the sound of a guzla reached the ears of the young men, but was almost immediately lost, for the rapid closing of the door merely allowed one rich swell of harmony to enter.

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As the torrential rainwaters swirl around one of the main characters caught in the downpour, the rhythm of the description seems to reflect the city's speed: "L'eau ruisselait de toutes parts; elle bouillonait, elle sautillait, murmurait; elle crait, elle foisonnait sous le balai de la portiere" (104).

Letters, lies, and legible urban space in Balzac's Ferragus

Les lignes precises avec les rayons tranchants interagissent avec les formes voluptueuses, comme celles entourant la partie inferieure de la portiere, demontrant non seulement le toucher elegant du designer pour la forme, mais aussi l'expertise des outilleurs et des specialistes de production de Seat.