6. pl. (Print.)
Defn: Letters, figures, points, marks, spaces, or quadrats, belonging to a case, separately considered. 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.
Syn. — Kind; species; rank; condition. — 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. As when the total kind Of birds, in orderly array on wing, Came summoned over Eden to receive Their names of there. Milton. None of noble sort Would so offend a virgin. Shak.
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. Rays which differ in refrangibility may be parted and sorted from one another. Sir I. Newton.
2. To reduce to order from a confused state. Hooker.
3. To conjoin; to put together in distribution; to class.
Shellfish have been, by some of the ancients, compared and sorted
with insects. Bacon.
She sorts things present with things past. Sir J. Davies.
4. To choose from a number; to select; to cull. That he may sort out a worthy spouse. Chapman. I'll sort some other time to visit you. Shak.
5. To conform; to adapt; to accommodate. [R.] I pray thee, sort thy heart to patience. Shak.
SORT
Sort, v. i.