Thick with sparkling orient gems The portal shone.
--Milton.
From out the fiery portal of the east. --Shak.
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.
3. (Bridge Building) The space, at one end, between opposite
trusses when these are terminated by inclined braces.
4. A prayer book or breviary; a portass. [Obs.]
{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.
Note: Portal is applied to other veins which break up into
capillaries; as, the renal portal veins in the frog.