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• sally
  sally

  noun

  a sortie of troops from a besieged place upon an enemy.
• Sally
  Sally

  noun

  a female given name, form of Sarah.

sally

¹ American  

[sal-ee] / ˈsæl i /

noun

• sallies
  plural

1. a sortie of troops from a besieged place upon an enemy.

2. a sudden rushing forth or activity.

3. an excursion or trip, usually off the main course.

4. an outburst or flight of passion, fancy, etc..

   a sally of anger.

5. a clever, witty, or fanciful remark.

   Synonyms:

   witticism, quip

6. Carpentry. a projection, as of the end of a rafter beyond the notch by which the rafter is fitted over the wall plate.

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verb (used without object)

• sallies,
  present (3rd person singular)
• sallied,
  past participle,  past
• sallying
  present participle

1. to make a sally, as a body of troops from a besieged place.

2. to set out on a side trip or excursion.

3. to set out briskly or energetically.

4. (of things) to issue forth.

Sally ² American  

[sal-ee] / ˈsæl i /

Or Sallie

noun

1. a female given name, form of Sarah.

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sally ¹ British  

/ ˈsælɪ /

noun

1. a sudden violent excursion, esp by besieged forces to attack the besiegers; sortie

2. a sudden outburst or emergence into action, expression, or emotion

3. an excursion or jaunt

4. a jocular retort

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verb

1. to make a sudden violent excursion

2. (often foll by forth) to go out on an expedition, etc

3. to come, go, or set out in an energetic manner

4. to rush out suddenly

Sally ² British  

/ ˈsælɪ /

noun

1. a member of the Salvation Army

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sally ³ British  

/ ˈsælɪ /

noun

1. the lower part of a bell rope, where it is caught at handstroke, into which coloured wool is woven to make a grip

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• sallier
  noun
• outsally
  verb (used with object)
• unsallying
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• sallies
  plural

Participles

• sallying
  present
• sallied
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• sally
  simple
• sallies
  simple
• have sallied
  perfect
• has sallied
  perfect
• am sallying
  progressive
• are sallying
  progressive
• is sallying
  progressive
• have been sallying
  perfect progressive
• has been sallying
  perfect progressive

Past

• sallied
  simple
• had sallied
  perfect
• was sallying
  progressive
• were sallying
  progressive
• had been sallying
  perfect progressive

Future

• will sally
  simple
• will have sallied
  perfect
• will be sallying
  progressive
• will have been sallying
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of sally

1535–45; < Middle French saillie attack, noun use of feminine past participle of saillir to rush forward < Latin salīre to leap

Explanation

A sally is a military action, a sudden charge in the direction of the enemy. A sally sometimes has the advantage of taking the opposing army by surprise. When soldiers who have been on the defensive, having retreated to a foxhole or fort, make an abrupt offensive attack on their opponents, it's a sally. Another word for this kind of sally is a sortie. You can also call a sudden funny remark or comeback a sally, especially during a witty, back-and-forth, or bantering kind of conversation. The word comes from the Middle French saillie, "a rushing forth," from the Latin salire, "to leap."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sally Sally sallies sallied sallying

The latest sally is a new round of export restrictions released this week.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 24, 2026

The Uber initiative is the latest sally in a long war pitting plaintiffs and their lawyers against businesses, with legal fees as the battleground.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 16, 2026

Chess, by and large, is a war game played by nonmartial people who would have trouble identifying the business end of an M16 or explaining the difference between an embrasure and a sally port.

From Washington Times ● Sep. 26, 2023

The tiny river fly, known as scarce yellow sally, was thought to have died out a few decades ago.

From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2023

Fortunately, this sally port was used mainly for official vehicles—prison vans, state-police cars, ambulances—and it was a weekend day, so there wasn’t much traffic.

From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover

Postpartum psychosis is a medical emergency that affects about one to two women in every 1,000 births, said Sally Wilson, national training coordinator at the UK-based charity Action on Postpartum Psychosis.

From Barron's ● Aug. 28, 2026

“They came in, said, ‘Hi, my name’s Sally.’

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026

Visit Devon's Sally Everton said they had not seen "a significant surge in tourism or additional hotel bookings"

From BBC ● Aug. 12, 2026

Well, they came here legally,” said Sister Sally Duffy, a Sister of Charity and active participant in the network.

From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2026

I mean, I knew about Sally and her mother, but what about Liz and me?

From "The Lions of Little Rock" by Kristin Levine

She and her brood live high up in the trees, jumping from branch to branch and occasionally making exploratory sallies on the ground.

From Salon ● May 11, 2025

Here and there decisive sallies rattled the partisans of one side or another, but most battles seemed destined to come to, uh, a stalemate.

From Slate ● Jan. 25, 2018

Thus stoked, our commander in chief sallies forth to meet with probably the most illustrious collection of aides since Groucho hooked up with Chico and Harpo.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 11, 2017

The appropriate, time-honored response to the fool’s sallies is to take instruction from them.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 9, 2017

Maybe that’s why Jaimito went along with these dangerous sallies.

From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez

I sallied forth, seeking a companion to go with me to see Metallica at a 6th Street club.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 27, 2022

Yet despite a government determined to constrain their ambition and advancement, they sallied forward to become a lawyer and educator, respectively.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 21, 2022

One of these counter-offensives came in the form of an appearance from billionaire Howard Schultz, Starbucks' former chairman, who sallied over to Buffalo to vaguely dissuade pro-union workers from unionizing.

From Salon ● Dec. 25, 2021

The original movie succeeded in wasting Emmanuelle Béart and Kristin Scott Thomas, and it wasn’t really until Ferguson sallied into film No. 5, toting an assassin’s rifle, that progress began to be made.

From The New Yorker ● Jul. 26, 2018

When he awoke it was half-past nine, and he sallied forth to the restaurant car in search of hot coffee.

From "Murder on the Orient Express" by Agatha Christie

“I tended toward … a kind of diffuse sallying through the world, staying open to the coincidence, digression, and movement,” she writes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026

Finally, some first-timers are valiantly sallying forth — the kind of debuts that’ll be more and more rare as times only get tougher for the restaurant industry under COVID-19.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 10, 2020

This is the most appealing side of Arbus: you feel a gust of Whitman, or of her near-contemporary Allen Ginsberg, in her sallying forth to compile such tumultuous chronicles of America.

From The New Yorker ● May 30, 2016

And so I decided to embark on my own immersive tour of those Gilded Age vestiges, sallying forth from my East Village apartment to seek the company of its obsessive modern admirers.

From New York Times ● Feb. 27, 2015

Mark could scarcely keep his excitable friend Texas from sallying out then and there to attack some of the more active members of this hilarious crowd.

From A Cadet's Honor Mark Mallory's Heroism by Upton Sinclair