PORTMANTEAU (portmanteaux)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: portmanteaux   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does portmanteau mean? 

• PORTMANTEAU (noun)
  The noun PORTMANTEAU has 2 senses:

1. a new word formed by joining two others and combining their meanings

2. a large travelling bag made of stiff leather

  Familiarity information: PORTMANTEAU used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PORTMANTEAU (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A new word formed by joining two others and combining their meanings

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

blend; portmanteau; portmanteau word

Context example:

'brunch' is a well-known portmanteau

Hypernyms ("portmanteau" is a kind of...):

coinage; neologism; neology (a newly invented word or phrase)

Domain member usage:

motel (a motor hotel)

brunch (combination breakfast and lunch; usually served in late morning)

shopaholic (a compulsive shopper)

workaholic (person with a compulsive need to work)

smog; smogginess (air pollution by a mixture of smoke and fog)

dandle (move (a baby) up and down in one's arms or on one's knees)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A large travelling bag made of stiff leather

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

Gladstone; Gladstone bag; portmanteau

Hypernyms ("portmanteau" is a kind of...):

bag; grip; suitcase; traveling bag; travelling bag (a portable rectangular container for carrying clothes)

 Context examples 

_Note left by Van Helsing in his portmanteau, Berkeley Hotel directed to John Seward, M. D._

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The team calls its device an infrared rectenna, a portmanteau of rectifying antenna.

(Harvesting Electrical Power from Waste Heat, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

In pursuance of my aunt's kind scheme, I was shortly afterwards fitted out with a handsome purse of money, and a portmanteau, and tenderly dismissed upon my expedition.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

No one answered; but a form emerged from the closet; it took the light, held it aloft, and surveyed the garments pendent from the portmanteau.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

One night during my accustomed visit to the neighbouring wood where I collected my own food and brought home firing for my protectors, I found on the ground a leathern portmanteau containing several articles of dress and some books.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I sat and pondered awhile, and then some thought occurred to me, and I made search of my portmanteau and in the wardrobe where I had placed my clothes.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The whole house of Omer and Joram turned out to bid us good-bye; and there were so many seafaring volunteers in attendance on Steerforth, when our portmanteaux went to the coach, that if we had had the baggage of a regiment with us, we should hardly have wanted porters to carry it.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It was enough that in yonder closet, opposite my dressing-table, garments said to be hers had already displaced my black stuff Lowood frock and straw bonnet: for not to me appertained that suit of wedding raiment; the pearl-coloured robe, the vapoury veil pendent from the usurped portmanteau.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The respectable creature, satisfied with his lot whatever it was, arranged our portmanteaux on the little carriage that was to take us into London, as if they were intended to defy the shocks of ages, and received my modestly proffered donation with perfect tranquillity.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)