Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The chief magistrate of a port or maritime town; in early English history, the representative or appointee of the crown having authority over a mercantile town.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A port warden.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
port warden .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The terms "portreeve" and "bailiff" are extremely familiar, and the offices they denote are by no means extinct; but, in addition to these functionaries, there has been perpetuated a whole family of minor ministers even more closely associated with the agricultural aspects of town life.
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And whereas of old the chief magistrate was a portreeve, I.E., governor of the city, Richard I. appointed two bailiffs; instead of which
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I heard the sobbing of a woman, and because the portreeve had spoken of a man, assumed that it came from a cell other than the one that held my client.
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Dorcas was on the steps of the Hall of Justice, a position reserved for her at my request by the portreeve.
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The thought that I might myself be confined there by some accident (a misunderstood order, for example, or some unsuspected malice on the part of the portreeve) recurred no matter how often I pushed it aside.
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I was cleaning off my boots when the portreeve met me there.
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A portreeve from the Hall of Justice found us there - an imposing man with a high, white forehead like the belly of a pitcher.
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I had gotten detailed directions from the portreeve, and though we missed our way, it was some time before we realized it, and we began our walk quite cheerfully.
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The portreeve asked if we could not stay in the lazaret, and when I shook my head, we - the pcrtreeve, Dorcas, and I - went there to permit him to argue with the physician in charge, who, as I had predicted, refused to have us.
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Glasmont, the seat of John Morris, Esq. the carriage had been drawn through the town by a choice body of exulting tars; and, after being regaled with his friends, by the portreeve, his lordship, and Sir
The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Volume 2
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