[f. prec. sb.; cf. Fr. escorter, It. scortare.] trans. To act as escort to. a. Mil. of armed men; Naut. of a convoy. b. In wider sense: To accompany for the purpose of protecting or conducting, or of showing civility.
a. 1708. Lond. Gaz., No. 4478/3. Yesterday the Troops that escorted our Foragers, met with several of the Enemy’s Parties.
1761–2. Hume, Hist. Eng. (1806), IV. lx. 539. The herring busses were escorted by twelve men of war.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 636. He was escorted by a bodyguard under the command of Sarsfield.
b. 1742. Dunkin, in Francis, trans. Horace’s Sat., I. ix. III. 145.
| In private haunt, in public meet, Salute, escort him through the Street. |
1754. Richardson, Grandison, II. iv. 50. To escorte and guide me through this wood.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xxxi. Catharine, escorted by old Henshaw and a groom of the Knight of Kinfauns.
1888. Miss Braddon, Fatal Three, I. ii. He had escorted her to the first of her parties.
Hence Escorting ppl. a., that escorts. Escortment, the action of escorting.
1870. Pall Mall Gaz., 7 Nov., 7/1. The official list of the escorting officers.
1775. Adair, Amer. Ind., 303. One of the warriors was sent to accompany me, though rather by way of escortment.
