Definition of "sortie"

(military, also attributively and figuratively)

1. An attack made by troops from a besieged position; a sally.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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.

     1827, John T[homas] Jones, “[Notes.] Note 35 [Observations on the Several Sorties Made by the Garrisons of the Places Besieged in Spain].”, in Journals of Sieges Carried on by the Army under the Duke of Wellington, in Spain, between the Years 1811 and 1814. […], volume II, London: […] [C. Roworth] for T[homas] Egerton, […], page 369

2. (aviation) An operational flight carried out by a single military aircraft.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • 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.

     2019 May 8, Aron Heller, “These Jewish World War II Veterans Would Be Legends, if People Knew Their Stories”, in The New York Times‎

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

     2022 March 22, Maria Varenikova, Andrew E. Kramer, “How Ukraine’s Outgunned Air Force Is Fighting Back Against Russian Jets”, in The New York Times‎

(by extension)

1. An act of venturing out to do a task, etc.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • ‘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.

     2007 April 14, Ed Vulliamy, “Absolute MacInnes”, in The Guardian‎

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

     2019 July 8, Jeff Foust, “NASA’s Lunar Space Station Is a Great/Terrible Idea”, in IEEE Spectrum‎, New York, N.Y.: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, archived from the original on 28 November 2021

2. (figuratively)

   1. An act of trying to enter a new field of activity.  examples

   2. (sports) An attacking move.  quotations  examples

      Quotations

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

        1998, David Potter, Tom Campbell, Jock Stein: The Celtic Years‎, Edinburgh: Mainstream Publishing, published 2005

3. (astronautics) An operational flight carried out by a spacecraft involving a return to Earth.  examples

4. (military) Synonym of sally port (“an entry to or opening into a fortification to enable a sally”)  quotations

   Quotations

   • [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.

     1848, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter VII, in Harold, the Last of the Saxon Kings; […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], book XII (The Field of Hastings), pages 331–332

5. (photography) A series of aerial photographs taken during the flight of an aircraft; (by extension) a photography session.  examples

(intransitive) To carry out a sortie; to sally.  quotations  examples