sortie
[sawr-tee]
- a rapid movement of troops from a besieged place to attack the besiegers.
- a body of troops involved in such a movement.
- the flying of an airplane on a combat mission.
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- to go on a sortie; sally forth.
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Origin of sortie
1680–90; < French, noun use of feminine past participle of sortir to go out
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for sortie
Contemporary Examples
My grandfather, his father, was a WW1 ace and was on the sortie which downed the Red Baron.
Historical Examples
But the British have retreated, you say, and there was a sortie from the fort?
In the ValleyHarold Frederic
It was difficult to reply to this, for a sortie was out of the question.
The Field of IceJules Verne
The question of a sortie began now to be seriously discussed.
The Field of IceJules Verne
Boone was wounded, and very nearly lost his life, in a sortie.
Chronicles of Border WarfareAlexander Scott Withers
All the signs pointed to a sortie in force from the fortifications.
Personal Recollections of a CavalrymanJ. H. (James Harvey) Kidd
sortie
- (of troops, etc) the act of emerging from a contained or besieged position
- the troops doing this
- an operational flight made by one aircraft
- a short or relatively short return trip
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- (intr) to make a sortie
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Word Origin
C17: from French: a going out, from sortir to go out
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for sortie
n.
"attack of the besieged upon the besiegers," 1778, from French sortie (16c.), literally "a going out," noun use of fem. past participle of sortir "go out," from Vulgar Latin *surctire, from Latin surrectus, past participle of surgere "rise up" (see surge (n.)).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper