Edit page | Page history | Printable version

porch

1. A covered and inclosed entrance to a building, whether taken from the interior, and forming a sort of vestibule within the main wall, or projecting without and with a separate roof. Sometimes the porch is large enough to serve as a covered walk. See also Carriage porch, under Carriage, and Loggia. The graceless Helen in the porch I spied Of Vesta's temple. (Dryden)

2. A portico; a covered walk. Repair to Pompey's porch, where you shall find find us. (Shak) The Porch, a public portico, or great hall, in Athens, where Zeno, the philosopher, taught his disciples; hence, sometimes used as equivalent to the school of the stoics. It was called h poikilh stoa. [See Poicile.

Origin: F. Porche, L. Porticus, fr. Porta a gate, entrance, or passage. See Port a gate, and cf. Portico.