Definition of "sally"

Till then she had never formed an idea of one so gifted and so charming. She listened with astonishment to her companion's gay sallies, and answers, as piquant as they were ready.

1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The First Doubt”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], page 39

Bull snuffed; he never paid any attention to her sallies but he heard them.

1957, Jack Kerouac, On the Road, Viking Press

The stakes are low and the story beats are incidental amid the rush of largely mild visual gags and verbal sallies like “Blood Island! So called because it’s the exact shape of some blood!”

2012 April 26, Tasha Robinson, “Film: Reviews: The Pirates! Band Of Misfits”, in The Onion AV Club‎

Everyone shall know a country better that makes often sallies into it, and traverses it up and down, than he that […] goes still round in the same track.

a. 1705, John Locke, “Of the Conduct of the Understanding”, in Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke: […], London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], published 1706

Adverse comment begins with uncomplimentary observations on the somewhat harder seats, then reaches a crescendo when it is discovered that the perverse and unhurried train is actually going to wait for another connection which is running late, instead of sallying forth at once for the benefit of those already on board and leaving latecomers stranded.

1942 July-August, “The Country Branch”, in Railway Magazine, page 194