sortie

[sawr-tee]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR sortie ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

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.

verb (used without object), sor·tied, sor·tie·ing.

to go on a sortie; sally forth.

Nearby words

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. 2019

Examples from the Web for sortie

My grandfather, his father, was a WW1 ace and was on the sortie which downed the Red Baron.
The Story Behind This Photo of an RAF Pilot|David Frum|March 17, 2013|DAILY BEAST
Light-signals were arranged with Thionville, and all preparations made for a sortie on the 7th.
The Franco-German War of 1870-71|Count Helmuth, von Moltke
All now looked to the general, expecting he would utter the decisive word, and order the garrison to make a sortie.
Napoleon and the Queen of Prussia|L. Mhlbach,
He died from a wound he received during a sortie from Basing House on the 14th of September, 1644.
Notes and Queries, Vol. IV, Number 91, July 26, 1851|Various

Late this afternoon we started, four of us, with Davis as leader, to make the usual two-hour sortie over the lines.
High Adventure|James Norman Hall
And now with Ned Rackham in the van, it seemed that the British sailors were in a parlous plight and that their sortie must fail.
Blackbeard: Buccaneer|Ralph D. Paine

British Dictionary definitions for sortie

sortie

noun

(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

verb -ties, -tieing or -tied

(intr) to make a sortie

Word Origin for sortie

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

sortie

"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.)).