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A minute opening or passageway; an interstice between the constituent particles or molecules of a body; as, the pores of stones.

A passageway; an opening or entrance to an inclosed place; a gate; a door; a portal. [Archaic] Him I accuse The city ports by this hath entered. Shak. Form their ivory port the cherubim Forth issuing. Milton.

To divide, as the warp threads, so as to form a shed, or passageway, for the shuttle.

A removable cover, or a gate, for closing an aperture of any kind, as for closing the passageway for molten iron from a ladle.

, of multiplication and division. -- Slide valve. (a) Any valve which opens and closes a passageway by sliding over a port. (b) A particular kind of sliding valve, often used in steam engines for admitting steam to the piston and releasing it, alternately, having a cuplike cavity in its face, through which the exhaust…

." Newcomb. -- Straight-way valve, a valve which, when opened widely, affords a straight passageway, as for water. walk the straight and narrow.

A (comparatively) narrow passageway connecting two large bodies of water; -- often in the plural; as, the strait, or straits, of Gibraltar; the straits of Magellan; the strait, or straits, of Mackinaw. We steered directly through a large outlet which they call a strait, though it be fifteen miles broad. De Foe.…

To make an opening, or a passageway, through or under; as, to tunnel a mountain; to tunnel a river.

A chasm, mouth, or passageway. [R.] Now gape the graves, and trough their yawns let loose Imprisoned spirits. Marston.