sort
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: sôrt
ipa: /sɔːt/
enpr: sôrt
ipa: /soɹt/
enpr: sôrt
ipa: /soːt/
enpr: sôrt
ipa: /sɔɹt/
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)t
homophone: sought (non-rhotic)
Forms: form: sorts
form: sorting
form: sorted
form: sorted
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: sort
form: sort
form: sorted
form: sort
form: sortest
form: sorted
form: sortedst
form: sorts
form: sorteth
form: sorted
form: sort
form: sorted
form: sort
form: sorted
form: sort
form: -
form: sorting
form: sorted
Etymology: From Middle English sorten, from Old French sortir (“to allot, sort”), from Latin sortīre (“draw lots, divide, choose”), from sors.
Senses: examples: text: Sort the letters in those bags into a separate pile for each language.
text: And seeing the Rays which differ in Refrangibility may be parted and sorted from one another, and that either by Refraction..., or by Reflexion..., and then the several sorts apart at equal Incidences suffer unequal Refractions,...; it's manifest that the Sun's Light is an heterogeneous Mixture of Rays..., as was proposed.
ref: 1704, Isaac Newton, Opticks:
text: "Is there a man among ye has the Gaelic? ... Is there a man among ye can speak English even? ... Is there a man among ye at all? Ye gang o' lasceevious auld de'ils, decked oot like weemin, in spite o' yer hairy long whuskers, full beards and full skirts, ye deceitful besoms. Whuskers and petticoats wi' the vices o' both and the virtues o' neither. I'll sorrt ye." And there were sounds of alarums and excursions within.
ref: 1929, Percival Christopher Wren, Good Gestes, The McSnorrt Reminiscent:
text: Jaime finally leaves her [Cersei], walking right past his imminent executioner, and rides out of King’s Landing, finally neatly sorting our humans into good and evil and Bronn.
ref: 2017 August 27, Brandon Nowalk, “Game Of Thrones slows down for the longest, and best, episode of the season (newbies)”, in The Onion AV Club:
synonyms: categorize
class
classify
group
glosses: To separate items into different categories according to certain criteria that determine their sorts.
examples: text: Sort those bells into a row in ascending sequence of pitch.
synonyms: order
rank
glosses: To arrange into some sequence, usually numerically, alphabetically or chronologically.
examples: text: Shellfish have been, by some of the ancients, compared and sorted with insecta.
ref: 1635, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, Or, A Naturall Historie in Ten Centuries:
text: For when she sorts things present with things past
And thereby things to come doth oft foresee;
When she doth doubt at first, and chuse at last,
These acts her owne, without her body bee.
ref: 1599, John Davies, Nosce Teipsum:
glosses: To conjoin; to put together in distribution; to class.
examples: text: I pray thee, sort thy heart to patience.
ref: ca 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI part 2:
glosses: To conform; to adapt; to accommodate.
examples: text: To send his mother to her father's house, that he may sort her out a worthy spouse
ref: 1616, George Chapman, The Odysseys of Homer:
text: I'll sort some other time to visit you.
ref: ca 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI part 1:
glosses: To choose from a number; to select; to cull.
examples: text: The illiberality of Parents in allowance towards their children is an harmefull error: makes them base; acquaints them with shifts, makes them sort with meane companie; and makes them surfet more, when they come to plenty.
ref: 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Parents and Children:
text: Nor do Metalls only sort and herd with Metalls in the Earth : and Minerals with Minerals : but both indifferently and in common together: Iron with Vitriol, with Alum, with Sulphur: Copper with Sulphur, with Vitriol, &c. yea Iron, Copper, Lead, Nitre, Sulphur, Vitriol, and perhaps some more in one and the same Mass.
ref: 1695, John Woodward, An essay toward a natural history of the earth:
glosses: To join or associate with others, especially with others of the same kind or species; to agree.
examples: text: They are happie men, whose natures sort with their vocations, otherwise they may say Multum incola fuit anima mea; when they converse in those things they doe not affect.
ref: 1612, Francis Bacon, Of Nature in Men:
text: I cannot tell ye precisely how they sorted; but they agreed sae right that Donald was invited to dance at the wedding in his Highland trews, and they said that there was never sae meikle siller clinked in his purse either before or since.
ref: 1814, Walter Scott, Waverley:
glosses: To suit; to fit; to be in accord; to harmonize.
examples: text: ‘Does rewilding sort climate change? Yes!’: UK expert says nature can save planet and not harm farming [title]
ref: 2024 February 25, Donna Ferguson, “‘Does rewilding sort climate change? Yes!’: UK expert says nature can save planet and not harm farming”, in The Observer:
synonyms: sort out
glosses: To fix (a problem) or handle (a task).
examples: text: If he comes nosing around here again I'll sort him!
synonyms: sort out
glosses: To attack physically.
glosses: To geld.
Derived terms: besort
pick-and-sort
re-sort
resort
sorted
sorting
sort oneself out
sort out
sort the wheat from the chaff
sort through
sort-while-pick