portrayed; portraying; portrays
portrayer
noun
Synonyms
Examples of portray in a Sentence
The White House has portrayed the President as deeply conflicted over the matter.
The lawyer portrayed his client as a victim of child abuse.
He portrayed himself as a victim.
The painting portrays the queen in a purple robe.
Laurence Olivier portrayed Hamlet beautifully.
Recent Examples on the Web
In All My Children, the actress portrayed Verla Grubbs.
—
Zoey Lyttle, Peoplemag, 26 Apr. 2024
This single is accompanied by a video filmed in black and white at an airport, directed by Carlos Perez, and portrays the reunion of an eternal love, like those couples who always find a way to meet again.
—Isabela Raygoza, Billboard, 26 Apr. 2024
The movie velociraptors are portrayed as being 6 feet tall with scaly skin and incredibly fast, but real velociraptors were about as big as a medium-sized dog, measuring approximately 1.6 feet high and between 4.8 and 6.8 feet across, scientists say.
—Mary Kekatos, ABC News, 26 Apr. 2024
Related Stories Fischler, best known for portraying the insult comic Jimmy Barrett on Mad Men, spent weekends there during his childhood, then waited tables as a teen and again after college.
—Gary Baum, The Hollywood Reporter, 25 Apr. 2024
In the hundreds of years after her death around 570 B.C.E., Sappho was often portrayed in art as heterosexual when her own poetry said otherwise.
—Alex Berg, NBC News, 25 Apr. 2024
Over 31 songs—the last 15 added in the early hours of the morning as a surprise drop—Swift portrays herself as a woman stuck in a spiral of obsessive overthinking, with new cuts seeming to open up old wounds.
—Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 24 Apr. 2024
Carter portrayed Michael Anderson alongside Pam Grier and Antonio Fargas in the crime thriller.
—USA TODAY, 23 Apr. 2024
Carter also portrayed second-in-command Colonel Tigh on the sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica in the late '70s and Sgt.
—Wesley Stenzel, EW.com, 23 Apr. 2024
Zoey Lyttle, Peoplemag, 26 Apr. 2024
This single is accompanied by a video filmed in black and white at an airport, directed by Carlos Perez, and portrays the reunion of an eternal love, like those couples who always find a way to meet again.
—Isabela Raygoza, Billboard, 26 Apr. 2024
The movie velociraptors are portrayed as being 6 feet tall with scaly skin and incredibly fast, but real velociraptors were about as big as a medium-sized dog, measuring approximately 1.6 feet high and between 4.8 and 6.8 feet across, scientists say.
—Mary Kekatos, ABC News, 26 Apr. 2024
Related Stories Fischler, best known for portraying the insult comic Jimmy Barrett on Mad Men, spent weekends there during his childhood, then waited tables as a teen and again after college.
—Gary Baum, The Hollywood Reporter, 25 Apr. 2024
In the hundreds of years after her death around 570 B.C.E., Sappho was often portrayed in art as heterosexual when her own poetry said otherwise.
—Alex Berg, NBC News, 25 Apr. 2024
Over 31 songs—the last 15 added in the early hours of the morning as a surprise drop—Swift portrays herself as a woman stuck in a spiral of obsessive overthinking, with new cuts seeming to open up old wounds.
—Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic, 24 Apr. 2024
Carter portrayed Michael Anderson alongside Pam Grier and Antonio Fargas in the crime thriller.
—USA TODAY, 23 Apr. 2024
Carter also portrayed second-in-command Colonel Tigh on the sci-fi series Battlestar Galactica in the late '70s and Sgt.
—Wesley Stenzel, EW.com, 23 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'portray.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near portray
Cite this Entry
“Portray.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/portray. Accessed 30 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
portray
verb
por·tray
pōr-ˈtrā 
pȯr-
1
: to make a portrait of
2
a
: to describe in words
b
: to play the role of
portrayer
noun
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