portable

4 definitions found

portable - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Portable \Port"a*ble\, a. [L. portabilis, fr. portare to carry:
     cf. F. portable. See Port demeanor.]
     1. Capable of being borne or carried; easily transported;
        conveyed without difficulty; as, a portable bed, desk,
        engine. --South.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Possible to be endured; supportable. [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]
  
              How light and portable my pain seems now! --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Portable forge. See under Forge.
  
     Portable steam engine. See under Steam engine.
        [1913 Webster]

portable - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  portable
      adj 1: easily or conveniently transported; "a portable
             television set" [ant: unportable]
      2: of a motor designed to be attached to the outside of a boat's
         hull; "a portable outboard motor"
      n 1: a small light typewriter; usually with a case in which it
           can be carried

portable - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  portability
  portable
  
     <operating system, programming> The ease with which a piece of
     software (or file format) can be "ported", i.e. made to run
     on a new platform and/or compile with a new compiler.
  
     The most important factor is the language in which the
     software is written and the most portable language is almost
     certainly C (though see Vaxocentrism for counterexamples).
     This is true in the sense that C compilers are available for
     most systems and are often the first compiler provided for a
     new system.  This has led several compiler writers to compile
     other languages to C code in order to benefit from its
     portability (as well as the quality of compilers available for
     it).
  
     The least portable type of language is obviously assembly code
      since it is specific to one particular (family of)
     processor(s).  It may be possible to translate mechanically
     from one assembly code (or even machine code) into another
     but this is not really portability.  At the other end of the
     scale would come interpreted or semi-compiled languages
     such as LISP or Java which rely on the availability of a
     portable interpreter or virtual machine written in a lower
     level language (often C for the reasons outlined above).
  
     The act or result of porting a program is called a "port".
     E.g. "I've nearly finished the Pentium port of my big bang
     simulation."
  
     Portability is also an attribute of file formats and depends
     on their adherence to standards (e.g. ISO 8859) or the
     availability of the relevant "viewing" software for different
     platforms (e.g. PDF).
  
     (1997-06-18)
  

portable - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :

  35 Moby Thesaurus words for "portable":
     assignable, carriable, communicable, compact, conductive,
     consignable, contagious, convenient, conveyable, expressable,
     handy, impartable, interchangeable, light, lightweight, little,
     mailable, manageable, metathetic, movable, pocket, pocket-sized,
     portative, removable, small, transferable, transfusable,
     transmissible, transmissive, transmittable, transportable,
     transportative, transposable, vest-pocket, wieldy