Word Direct Answers

What does "portion" mean?

Portion: A part considered by itself, though not actually cut off or separated from the whole. These are parts of his ways; but how little a portion is heard of him! Job xxvi.

Additional senses

  1. 2.Portions and parcels of the dreadful past. Tennyson.
  2. 3.A part assigned; allotment; share; fate. The lord of that servant . . . will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. Luke xii.
  3. 4.Man's portion is to die and rise again. Keble.
  4. 5.The part of an estate given to a child or heir, or descending to him by law, and distributed to him in the settlement of the estate; an inheritance. Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. Luke xv.
  5. 6.5. A wife's fortune; a dowry. Shak. -- Portion, Part. Part is generic, having a simple reference to some whole. Portion has the additional idea of such a division as bears reference to an individual, or is allotted to some object; as, a portion of one's time; a portion of Scripture.
  6. 7.To separate or divide into portions or shares; to parcel; to distribute. And portion to his tribes the wide domain. Pope.
  7. 8.To endow with a portion or inheritance. Him portioned maids, apprenticed orphans, blest. Pope.

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