porch

Everyday

1. A small covered area or room at the entrance to a house, outside the front door. tree →
2. (US, Canada) A covered area along the front or side of a house where people can sit; a veranda. tree →

In the lessons

In everyday life: leaving shoes or wet umbrellas in the porch, sitting on the porch on summer evenings, parcels left on the porch. In safety: «porch pirates» steal parcels; porch lights help visitors see at night. Phrases: «front porch», «back porch», «porch light», «on the porch».

Examples

• Leave your muddy boots in the porch. tree →
• We sat on the porch and drank lemonade. tree →
• The parcel was left on the front porch. tree →
• Turn on the porch light for the visitors. tree →
• Grandpa has a rocking chair on his porch. tree →
• A cat was sleeping on our porch. tree →
• Now one night he heard some one knocking at the porch, asking for admittance. tree →

Note

Plural: porches (-es after ch). «On the porch» (US, an open area), «in the porch» (UK, a small room). Similar: veranda/verandah, deck, stoop.

In Jewish tradition

A porch is the covered entry hall of the Temple or of a palace. Solomon's Temple had a porch at the front, and Ezekiel measures one in his vision.

Interpretation. Tradition remembers the Temple porch with its two bronze pillars and sees Ezekiel's measured porch as part of the future Temple.

Examples

• He measured also the porch of the gate toward the house, one reed. (Prophets EZK.40.8, JPS 1917) tree →
• Now the temple, and the inner place, and the porches of the court, (Prophets EZK.41.15, JPS 1917) tree →
• He made also a house for Pharaoh's daughter, whom Solomon had taken to wife, like unto this porch. (Prophets 1KI.7.8, JPS 1917) tree →

Note

Plural: porches (-es after ch). «On the porch» (US, an open area), «in the porch» (UK, a small room). Similar: veranda/verandah, deck, stoop.