Also 8 erron. entreport. [Fr.:—Lat. type interpositum, neut. pa. pple. of interpōnĕre, f. inter between + pōnĕre to place.]
1. Temporary deposit of goods, provisions, etc.; chiefly concr. a storehouse or assemblage of storehouses for temporary deposit. Also fig.
1721. C. King, Brit. Merch., I. Pref. p. xxv. A Place of Entre-Port for the Depository of their Goods.
1782. Pownall, Stud. Antiq., 68. The people … settled … many entrepôts, and out distant factories.
1802. Playfair, Illustr. Hutton. Th., 363. It may have … served for an entrepot, as it were, where those debris were deposited.
1811. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., VIII. 410. Their [the troops’] surplus means of transport might be applied … to form an entrepôt at a convenient distance.
1871. Maine, Vill. Commun., vi. 197. The merchant … carries his goods from the place of production, stores them in local entrepôts.
2. A commercial center; a place to which goods are brought for distribution to various parts of the world. Also attrib., as in entrepôt-trade.
1758. Chesterf., Lett. (1792), IV. cccxxix. 118. The place where you are now is the great entrepôt of business.
1812. Examiner, 18 Oct., 658/2. Moscow is the entrepot of Asia and Europe.
1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xxiv. 607. The most important entrepot of the herring fishery was Yarmouth in Norfolk.
1883. Pall Mall Gaz., 5 April, 2/1. A diversion from our entrepôt trade.
3. A mart or place where goods are received and deposited, free of duty, for exportation to another port or country.
