Meaning of Sortie | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A surname.
2. An attack made by troops from a besieged position; a sally.
   also, attributive, figuratively
3. An operational flight carried out by a single military aircraft.
   also, attributive, figuratively
4. An act of venturing out to do a task, etc.
   broadly
5. An act of trying to enter a new field of activity.
   broadly, figuratively
6. An attacking move.
   broadly, figuratively
7. An operational flight carried out by a spacecraft involving a return to Earth.
   broadly
8. Synonym of sally port (“an entry to or opening into a fortification to enable a sally”).
   broadly
9. A series of aerial photographs taken during the flight of an aircraft; (by extension) a photography session.
   broadly

Equivalents

Examples

“The events of these sieges show⟳ that a bold and vigorous sortie in force⟳ might carry⟳ destruction through every part of a besieger's approaches, where the guard is injudiciously disposed and ill commanded; but that if due precautions have⟳ been observed in forming the approaches and posting the defenders, any sortie from a besieged place⟳ must be checked with loss in their advance, when the approaches are still distant; or when the approaches are near, should a sortie succeed⟳ in pushing into them by a sudden rush⟳, the assailants must inevitably be driven out again in a moment, with terrible slaughter.”

“Their aircraft had no belly gunners and were at the mercy of Luftwaffe fighters that attacked from below. Whenever they lifted off on a mission, they departed with the knowledge that this sortie could easily be their last⟳.”

“They are vastly outnumbered: Russia is believed to fly⟳ some 200 sorties per day while Ukraine flies five to 10.”

“‘I'm just not interested in the whole class crap that seems to needle you and all the tax-payers,’ the teenager tells some ‘pre-historic monster’ of an adult, with a ‘cool’ snobbishness which MacInnes's companion on many of his Notting Hill sorties, the late Professor Richard Wollheim, compared to the ‘Sang Froid’ of Baudelaire's Dandy as he cruised through Fin-de-Siecle Paris with a similar sensibility, or lack of it.”

“Finally, the astronauts will descend to the lunar surface. After their sortie on the moon, they'll return⟳ to the orbital station.”

“Kai Johansen made a sortie down the right and, running out of ideas, tried a shot from more than 20 yards.”

“[I]t was all encompassed by the palisades and breastworks, to which were but three sorties, whence the defenders might sally, or through which at need⟳ the vanguard might secure a retreat.”

CEFR level