How to Use portage in a Sentence

portage

1 of 2 noun
  • There is a short portage from the parking area to the launch site.
    — Bob Rountree, Sun-Sentinel.com, 10 Apr. 2018
  • The idea of a long portage has been in his head in various forms for years.
    — Paul A. Smith, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 3 Oct. 2021
  • More than a thousand lakes, many linked by rivers and historic portage trails.
    — The Week Staff, The Week, 5 Oct. 2018
  • Most portages are a few hundred yards, Paul said, but some are up to a mile long.
    — Porter Fox, New York Times, 21 Oct. 2016
  • Then, a quick portage to saltwater was all that was required.
    — Lynda V. Mapes, The Seattle Times, 29 June 2017
  • The last to sign the guest book at the portage trail was August 13.
    — John Schandelmeier, Anchorage Daily News, 8 Sep. 2019
  • Even talk of portages can elicit good memories.
    — Tom Cherveny, Twin Cities, 20 Sep. 2025
  • The backpack straps are key for long portages and transporting the bag down sketchy put-ins.
    — Joe Jackson, Outside Online, 19 Apr. 2018
  • Rentals are available inside the park, while private vessels can be launched with a short portage.
    — Carrie Honaker, Travel + Leisure, 22 Feb. 2026
  • From a camp on the lake, the two friends made a day-long paddle and portage trip to visit several area lakes.
    — Tom Cherveny, Twin Cities, 20 Sep. 2025
  • There will be a portage built in case paddleboarders or kayakers don’t want to use the step down rocks in their boats.
    — Jordan Miller, The Salt Lake Tribune, 17 July 2021
  • This process required portage, carrying the product across dry ground from the edge of the lake to the river.
    — Lindsay Bierman, Southern Living, 11 July 2017
  • The center yoke thwart is perfectly balanced for one-person portages.
    — The Editors, Outside Online, 18 May 2018
  • There was one industry that the new city would excel in, which did not require ships, portages, or much labor at all.
    — Adam Davidson, The New Yorker, 19 Jan. 2017
  • Who would mind a portage of a couple of miles through rough country with that possibility ahead?
    — Ben East, Outdoor Life, 28 Aug. 2025
  • The confluence of rivers was good, and some portage locations also became cities.
    — Bill Conerly, Forbes, 9 Mar. 2021
  • Motorboats were used to get crews to the first portage point, then rescuers used canoes the rest of the way to retrieve the members.
    — CBS News, 27 July 2019
  • No new campsite, portage or lake closures in the area of the Delta Fire are in the works, Gilkeson said.
    — Tony Kennedy, Star Tribune, 15 July 2021
  • The stream led to our first portage to Bottle Lake and a second into Iron Lake.
    — Porter Fox, New York Times, 21 Oct. 2016
  • The county is also constructing a new portage for the dam near 2100 South.
    — Jordan Miller, The Salt Lake Tribune, 17 July 2021
  • Adding the second start line (and cutting out two of the portages) definitely helped revitalized the race, as did adding the rentals.
    — Annie Alleman, Aurora Beacon-News, 22 May 2018
  • Petit has made the run from Kaltag to Unalakleet with a solid 11-hour run on the portage.
    — Jake Berkowitz, Anchorage Daily News, 11 Mar. 2018
  • Sue demonstrated how to empty everything in the boat into one of two portage packs, then swing the canoe on top of your shoulders, upside down.
    — Porter Fox, New York Times, 21 Oct. 2016
  • They’re marked in rods, an old English measurement of 16½ feet; a short portage might be 20 rods, or 110 yards.
    — John Bowe, Travel + Leisure, 11 June 2026
  • Towards the end, a fascinating part of the Helmericks’ journey involves their portage between rivers.
    — Nancy Lord, Anchorage Daily News, 2 Jan. 2021
  • Rom dangled her feet over the water, which was a couple miles of portages, rivers and rapids from the southwestern border of the Boundary Waters.
    — Reid Forgrave, New York Times, 12 Oct. 2017
  • The father and daughter had shared a love of taking canoe trips on the wilderness lakes and portages of Canada, David Montgomery said.
    — Mark Berman, Washington Post, 12 Jan. 2018
  • In the 1960s, legislation was passed that allowed people to hand-carry boats from the parking lot, about a five-minute portage, and then launch.
    — Tom Stienstra, San Francisco Chronicle, 29 Mar. 2018
  • For shorter outings in Vermont, paddlers should target the faster-flowing stretches beneath dams and try to end the day at a campsite before the next portage.
    — Outside Online, 18 Aug. 2021
  • Another unique river feature is Ruck-a-Chucky falls, a 30-foot drop that involves a mandatory portage.
    — Heather Hansman, Outside Online, 1 Oct. 2012

portage

2 of 2 verb
  • While several paddlers made it through unscathed, others got hung up on the rocks or opted to portage out past the rapids.
    — Annie Gentile, Courant Community, 1 May 2018
  • The group tried to portage before needing to leave four canoes in muck, Williams said, and outfitters later retrieved them.
    — Bob Timmons, Star Tribune, 30 July 2020
  • Slatten said that the tributary is one of the many streams and rivers that connect the lakes in the area and can take away the need for canoeists to portage from one waterway to the next.
    — Andrew Krueger, Twin Cities, 1 June 2017
  • Or couples could paddle a two-person raft on easier stretches of river, with instruction from guides, and portage their boats around more difficult rapids.
    — Brian E. Clark, Los Angeles Times, 8 May 2020
  • Beaver dams are already making hunting and fishing more difficult for some people in the Arctic, forcing them to portage their canoes around the dams, for example.
    — Sharon Levy, Smithsonian Magazine, 13 Dec. 2022
  • Twilight, Evening, Mystery, Cliff, Cedar, Perrault — traveling in two canoes with five-horsepower outboards, and portaging over rocky trails.
    — Fred Bear, Outdoor Life, 11 June 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'portage.' 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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