How to Use portly in a Sentence

portly

adjective
  • But the real star of that 278-bulb light show is the proud, portly chef on top.
    René A. Guzman, ExpressNews.com, 17 Sep. 2019
  • That kind of rapid transit is possible even though the LC 500 is a bit on the portly side.
    Al Haas, Philly.com, 25 Apr. 2018
  • One of them is the leader’s portly kid brother, the other a sullen cop killer who joined them on the breakout.
    Naomi Fry, The New Yorker, 24 Mar. 2018
  • The portly 36-year-old is a heavy smoker with a penchant for excess.
    David Pierson, Los Angeles Times, 21 Apr. 2020
  • Vicious rumors at the time of her death had the portly singer dying from choking on a ham sandwich.
    Jeff Piorkowski/special To Cleveland.com, cleveland.com, 8 Mar. 2018
  • To one awestruck 16-year-old private, the tall, portly baron in the long blue cloak was as intimidating as the Roman god of war.
    Erick Trickey, Smithsonian, 26 Apr. 2017
  • To one awestruck 16-year-old private, the tall, portly baron in the long blue cloak was as intimidating as the Roman god of war.
    Erick Trickey, Smithsonian, 26 Apr. 2017
  • Others said the portly 72-year-old would shout obscenities in his front yard when some chore went awry.
    Tony Bizjak, Anita Chabria, Dale Kasler, Nashelly Chavez and Diana Lambert, sacbee, 25 Apr. 2018
  • Gone are the days when the portly guy who can fix a carburetor is quick or fit enough to carry a tire or operate a jack.
    Tod Leonard, sandiegouniontribune.com, 4 May 2017
  • Punim, a kitty rather on the portly side, kept popping her outfit’s Velcro.
    Rita Giordano, Philly.com, 29 Oct. 2017
  • He was locked away to serve several life sentences, aging into a portly man with a thick white beard.
    New York Times, 13 June 2021
  • The master of this art is the eider duck, a portly sea duck that is widespread in the Arctic and feeds by diving for mussels in frigid polar water.
    Helen Czerski, WSJ, 6 Feb. 2020
  • One of my favorite shots is of a portly man in a business suit, rubbing his hands together over and over, in an age-old gesture of distress.
    Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker, 14 Dec. 2020
  • But when a volunteer gently tipped the carrier, the portly beaver waddled out and glided into the pond.
    Lisa P. White, The Mercury News, 27 Jan. 2017
  • Fashion: White jeans and driving moccasins abounded, along with a surfeit of portly men in long Bermuda shorts.
    Sam Dangremond, Town & Country, 17 July 2013
  • The Ring surveillance footage shows the portly mammals on the hood of a black-and-white police vehicle outside a home just after 3 a.m. Wednesday.
    Tiffini Theisen, orlandosentinel.com, 23 Oct. 2019
  • The formerly portly lawmaker has lost about 70 pounds over the past year while honing his critique of the incumbent.
    Michael Dresser, baltimoresun.com, 16 July 2017
  • Spicer's constant smile was back on full-grit for the dance and the show's portly engine-that-could pulled off some effective moves that resembled ballroom dancing.
    Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY, 1 Oct. 2019
  • Boyega had suggested a portly version of the young Sidney Poitier crossed with the facile charisma of the young Denzel Washington.
    Armond White, National Review, 18 Aug. 2021
  • While the shelves of Estonian markets were empty, Finnish TV carried ads of a portly chef prodding succulent cuts of veal and lamb.
    Jessica Loudis, New Republic, 13 Dec. 2017
  • Yet Haley was a portly middle-aged man, as audiences discovered when the union bans were finally lifted and the Comets toured Britain.
    Tony Fletcher, WSJ, 7 July 2017
  • The portly Cubs skipper uttered one of the great lines in managerial history after quitting with six games left in 1979.
    Paul Sullivan, chicagotribune.com, 28 Sep. 2019
  • Manatees gotta eat No animals gobble up more of that money than the zoo's four portly manatees.
    Scott Wartman, Cincinnati.com, 24 June 2019
  • Vasquez, the portly man whose cries of exaltation at a double rainbow turned him into a viral star, died at 57 on Saturday.
    Scottie Andrew, CNN, 11 May 2020
  • The Chinese ruler has been likened to the cartoon bear in the past, with critics of Xi mocking him for having similar physical characteristics to the portly bear.
    Natasha Bach, Fortune, 1 Mar. 2018
  • Kim, a portly man in his mid-40s, died shortly after the attack, en route to a hospital after suffering a seizure, Malaysian officials say.
    Orange County Register, 19 Feb. 2017
  • Vignon clearly relishes being at the center of the storm, with reporters now beating a path to the Vercors plateau in southeastern France where the portly priest ministers.
    John Leicester, Fox News, 6 Sep. 2018
  • For Thompson, a portly silver-haired Vietnam vet with eyebrows like bits of black felt, this polar bear encounter is routine business; the only thing ruffled is the wolf trim of his drab army parka.
    Michael Engelhard, Smithsonian, 27 Feb. 2017
  • For Thompson, a portly silver-haired Vietnam vet with eyebrows like bits of black felt, this polar bear encounter is routine business; the only thing ruffled is the wolf trim of his drab army parka.
    Michael Engelhard, Smithsonian, 27 Feb. 2017
  • Toss in his portly stature and Hoskins was a perfect choice for the heroic plumber Mario, the avenging angel who stomps through worlds of evil turtles and living mushrooms, even if the actor was neither Italian nor American.
    David Sims, The Atlantic, 31 May 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'portly.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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