'Sort' definitions:

Definition of 'sort'

(from WordNet)
noun
A category of things distinguished by some common characteristic or quality; "sculpture is a form of art"; "what kinds of desserts are there?" [syn: kind, sort, form, variety]
noun
An approximate definition or example; "she wore a sort of magenta dress"; "she served a creamy sort of dessert thing"
noun
A person of a particular character or nature; "what sort of person is he?"; "he's a good sort"
noun
An operation that segregates items into groups according to a specified criterion; "the bottleneck in mail delivery is the process of sorting" [syn: sort, sorting]
verb
Examine in order to test suitability; "screen these samples"; "screen the job applicants" [syn: screen, screen out, sieve, sort]
verb
Arrange or order by classes or categories; "How would you classify these pottery shards--are they prehistoric?" [syn: classify, class, sort, assort, sort out, separate]

Definition of 'Sort'

From: GCIDE
  • Sort \Sort\, n. [F. sorl, L. sors, sortis. See Sort kind.] Chance; lot; destiny. [Obs.] [1913 Webster]
  • By aventure, or sort, or cas [chance]. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
  • Let blockish Ajax draw The sort to fight with Hector. --Shak. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'Sort'

From: GCIDE
  • Sort \Sort\, n. [F. sorie (cf. It. sorta, sorte), from L. sors, sorti, a lot, part, probably akin to serere to connect. See Series, and cf. Assort, Consort, Resort, Sorcery, Sort lot.]
  • 1. A kind or species; any number or collection of individual persons or things characterized by the same or like qualities; a class or order; as, a sort of men; a sort of horses; a sort of trees; a sort of poems. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. Manner; form of being or acting. [1913 Webster]
  • Which for my part I covet to perform, In sort as through the world I did proclaim. --Spenser. [1913 Webster]
  • Flowers, in such sort worn, can neither be smelt nor seen well by those that wear them. --Hooker. [1913 Webster]
  • I'll deceive you in another sort. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • To Adam in what sort Shall I appear? --Milton. [1913 Webster]
  • I shall not be wholly without praise, if in some sort I have copied his style. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. Condition above the vulgar; rank. [Obs.] --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. A chance group; a company of persons who happen to be together; a troop; also, an assemblage of animals. [Obs.] "A sort of shepherds." --Spenser. "A sort of steers." --Spenser. "A sort of doves." --Dryden. "A sort of rogues." --Massinger. [1913 Webster]
  • A boy, a child, and we a sort of us, Vowed against his voyage. --Chapman. [1913 Webster]
  • 5. A pair; a set; a suit. --Johnson. [1913 Webster]
  • 6. pl. (Print.) Letters, figures, points, marks, spaces, or quadrats, belonging to a case, separately considered. [1913 Webster]
  • Out of sorts (Print.), with some letters or sorts of type deficient or exhausted in the case or font; hence, colloquially, out of order; ill; vexed; disturbed.
  • To run upon sorts (Print.), to use or require a greater number of some particular letters, figures, or marks than the regular proportion, as, for example, in making an index. [1913 Webster]
  • Syn: Kind; species; rank; condition.
  • Usage: Sort, Kind. Kind originally denoted things of the same family, or bound together by some natural affinity; and hence, a class. Sort signifies that which constitutes a particular lot of parcel, not implying necessarily the idea of affinity, but of mere assemblage. the two words are now used to a great extent interchangeably, though sort (perhaps from its original meaning of lot) sometimes carries with it a slight tone of disparagement or contempt, as when we say, that sort of people, that sort of language.

Definition of 'Sort'

From: GCIDE
  • Sort \Sort\, v. i.
  • 1. To join or associate with others, esp. with others of the same kind or species; to agree. [1913 Webster]
  • Nor do metals only sort and herd with metals in the earth, and minerals with minerals. --Woodward. [1913 Webster]
  • The illiberality of parents towards children makes them base, and sort with any company. --Bacon. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. To suit; to fit; to be in accord; to harmonize. [1913 Webster]
  • They are happy whose natures sort with their vocations. --Bacon. [1913 Webster]
  • Things sort not to my will. --herbert. [1913 Webster]
  • I can not tell you precisely how they sorted. --Sir W. Scott. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'Sort'

From: GCIDE
  • Sort \Sort\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Sorted; p. pr. & vb. n. Sorting.]
  • 1. To separate, and place in distinct classes or divisions, as things having different qualities; as, to sort cloths according to their colors; to sort wool or thread according to its fineness. [1913 Webster]
  • Rays which differ in refrangibility may be parted and sorted from one another. --Sir I. Newton. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. To reduce to order from a confused state. --Hooker. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. To conjoin; to put together in distribution; to class. [1913 Webster]
  • Shellfish have been, by some of the ancients, compared and sorted with insects. --Bacon. [1913 Webster]
  • She sorts things present with things past. --Sir J. Davies. [1913 Webster]
  • 4. To choose from a number; to select; to cull. [1913 Webster]
  • That he may sort out a worthy spouse. --Chapman. [1913 Webster]
  • I'll sort some other time to visit you. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 5. To conform; to adapt; to accommodate. [R.] [1913 Webster]
  • I pray thee, sort thy heart to patience. --Shak. [1913 Webster]

Synonyms of 'sort'

From: Moby Thesaurus

Words containing 'Sort'