sort

plural sorts

1. A general type.

   Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths.

   2013 June 14, Sam Leith, “Where the profound meets the profane”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 37

   3 more examples

   I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

   “[…] the awfully hearty sort of Christmas cards that people do send to other people that they don't know at all well. You know. The kind that have mottoes like Here's rattling good luck and roaring good cheer, / With lashings of food and great hogsheads of beer.[…]”

   1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC

   The face which emerged was not reassuring.[…]. He was not a mongol but there was a deficiency of a sort there, and it was not made more pretty by a latter-day hair cut which involved eccentrically long elf-locks and oiled black curls.

   1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 17, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

2. archaicManner, way; form of being or acting.

   I’ll deceive you in another sort

   ca 1590, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus

   5 more examples

   Soon as the term of those six years shall cease, Ye then shall hither back return again, The marriage to accomplish vow’d betwixt you twain. Which for my part, I covet to perform, In sort as through the world I did proclaim, That whoso kill’d that monster (most deform) And him in hardy battle overcame, Should have mine only daughter to his Dame […]

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “(please specify the book)”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

   Such is that argument whereby they that wore on their heads garlands are charged as transgressors of nature’s law, and guilty of sacrilege against God the Lord of nature, inasmuch as flowers, in such sort worn can neither be smelt nor seen well by those that wear them; and God made flowers sweet and beautiful, that being seen and smelt unto, they might so delight.

   1845, Richard Hooker, Works of that Learned and Judicious Divine […]

   But to Adam in what sort Shall I appeer? shall I to him make known As yet my change, and give him to partake Full happiness with mee, or rather not, But keep the odds of Knowledge within my power Without copartner?

   1667, John Milton, Paradise lost

   I acknowledge, with Segrais, that I have not succeeded in this attempt, according to my desire: yet I shall not be wholly without praise, if in some sort I may be allow’d to have copied the Clearness, the Purity, the Easiness and the Magnificence of his stile.

   1697, John Dryden, The Works of John Dryden, Volume V: Poems, →ISBN

   Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, of errand not wholly obvious to their fellows, yet of such sort as to call into query alike the nature of their errand and their own relations. It is easily earned repetition to state that Josephine St. Auban's was a presence not to be concealed.

   1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

3. obsoleteCondition above the vulgar; rank.

   1 more example

   “What think you, Captain Fluellen? is it fit this soldier keep his oath?” “He is a craven and a villain else, an’t please your majesty, in my conscience.” “It may be his enemy is a gentleman of great sort, quite from the answer of his degree.” “Though he be as good a gentleman as the devil is, as Lucifer and Belzebub himself, it is necessary, look your grace, that he keep his vow and his oath.”

   c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Henry V

4. informalA person evaluated in a certain way.

   good sort, bad sort

   3 more examples

   There is no problem with this and he seems to be a decent sort with very good reflexes. I will have Felix replaced with him when we get back to Washington because he is more acceptable.

   1999 October 28, Heinrich Müller, Müller Journals: 1948-1950, The Washington years

   Amo, he is the prince. And he is a good sort. You, My Husband, should be among his circle

   2014, Mykel D. Myles, The Long Night Of The Demon, →ISBN

   One doesn't need to be Einstein to realize he is a bad sort / My wife always said as much.

   2014, Seema Jha, Charade978-1-4969-8816-4

5. obsoleteGroup, company.

   a sort of shepherds suing of the Chace

   1595, Edmund Spenser, The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser

   3 more examples

   a sort of doves were housed too near their hall

   1687, John Dryden, The Hind and the Panther

   What good got you by wearing out your feet, To run on scurvy errands to the poor, and to bear mony to a sort of rogues And lousy prisoners?

   1622, Philip Massinger, The Virgin Martyr

   A boy, a child, and we a sort of us, Vowed against his voyage, yet admit it thus!

   1616, George Chapman, The Odysseys of Homer

6. AustraliaUKinformalA good-looking woman.
7. An act of sorting.

   I had a sort of my cupboard.

   Synonyms: sort-out

8. computingAn algorithm for sorting a list of items into a particular sequence.

   Popular algorithms for sorts include quicksort and heapsort.

   1 more example

   The fastest general algorithm we have considered that sorts keys in a stable manner is the list merge sort, but it does not use minimum storage

   2014, Donald E. Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming. Sorting and Searching, →ISBN

   Synonyms: sort algorithm, sorting algorithm

9. mediaA piece of metal type used to print one letter, character, or symbol in a particular size and style.

   Green managed to recover a total of 151 sorts (the name for individual pieces of type) out of a possible 500,000.

   2024 May 5, Holly Black, “Remnants of a Legendary Typeface Have Been Rescued From the River Thames”, in artnet

10. mathematicsA type.

    Synonyms: genre, genus, kind, type, variety

11. obsoleteFate, fortune, destiny.

    For he is groſſe and like the maſſie earth, That mooues not vpwards, nor by princely deeds Doth meane to ſoare aboue the highest ſort.

    c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene vii

12. obsoleteAnything used to determine the answer to a question by chance; lot.

    No, make a lottery; And, by device, let blockish Ajax draw The sort to fight with Hector.

    c. 1602, William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida

13. obsoleteA full set of anything, such as a pair of shoes or a suit of clothes.

present singular third person sorts · participle present sorting · participle past sorted · past sorted · first person past singular sorted · archaic present second person singular sortest · past second person singular sorted · archaic past second person singular sortedst · present singular third person sorts · archaic present singular third person sorteth · past singular third person sorted · past plural sorted · past subjunctive sorted · participle present sorting · participle past sorted

1. transitiveTo separate items into different categories according to certain criteria that determine their sorts.

   Sort the letters in those bags into a separate pile for each language.

   3 more examples

   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.

   1704, Isaac Newton, Opticks

   "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.

   1929, Percival Christopher Wren, Good Gestes, The McSnorrt Reminiscent

   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.

   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

2. transitiveTo arrange into some sequence, usually numerically, alphabetically or chronologically.

   Sort those bells into a row in ascending sequence of pitch.

   Synonyms: order, rank

3. transitiveTo conjoin; to put together in distribution; to class.

   Shellfish have been, by some of the ancients, compared and sorted with insecta.

   1635, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, Or, A Naturall Historie in Ten Centuries

   1 more example

   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.

   1599, John Davies, Nosce Teipsum

4. obsoletetransitiveTo conform; to adapt; to accommodate.

   I pray thee, sort thy heart to patience.

   ca 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI part 2

5. obsoletetransitiveTo choose from a number; to select; to cull.

   I'll sort some other time to visit you.

   ca 1591, William Shakespeare, Henry VI part 1

   1 more example

   To send his mother to her father's house, that he may sort her out a worthy spouse

   1616, George Chapman, The Odysseys of Homer

6. intransitiveTo join or associate with others, especially with others of the same kind or species; to agree.

   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.

   1625, Francis Bacon, Of Parents and Children

   1 more example

   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.

   1695, John Woodward, An essay toward a natural history of the earth

7. intransitiveTo suit; to fit; to be in accord; to harmonize.

   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.

   1612, Francis Bacon, Of Nature in Men

   1 more example

   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.

   1814, Walter Scott, Waverley

8. UKcolloquialtransitiveTo fix (a problem) or handle (a task).

   ‘Does rewilding sort climate change? Yes!’: UK expert says nature can save planet and not harm farming [title]

   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

9. UKcolloquialtransitiveTo attack physically.

   If he comes nosing around here again I'll sort him!

   Synonyms: sort out

10. transitiveTo geld.