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escort

UK/ˈɛs.kɔːt/US/ˈɛs.kɔɹt/
nounB22 meaningsVery common — you will meet it every day · #1,879 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: escorted, escorting, escorts

An escort is a person or group who go with somebody to guard or accompany them. A police escort, an armed escort, under escort.

The word covers protection and formality equally: a military escort guards, and an escort at a formal event simply accompanies. The verb is stressed on the second syllable — es-CORT — while the noun is stressed on the first, which is a common English pattern. Note escort agency, which supplies paid companions and where the word has a commercial sexual sense; and escort vehicle, which travels with an oversized load.

Definitions of escort

  1. 1nounescortPeople who go with somebody to guard or accompany them.B2

    “The convoy travelled with an armed escort.”

  2. 2verbguardTo go with somebody to guard or accompany them.B2

    “Two officers escorted him from the building.”

Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.

escort is an accompanying.

Where it comes from

Italian scorta meant a guide or guard, from scorgere, to guide — ultimately from Latin corrigere, to set right, the same verb as correct. An escort was a corrector of the route before it was a guard on it.

  1. Italian

    scorta

  2. French

    escorte

  3. English, today

    escort

Borrowed from French escorte, itself borrowed from Italian scorta.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

escort in the wild

  • In the Battle of the Atlantic, escort carriers were used to protect convoys against U-boats.

    Escort carrier

  • Of the 151 aircraft carriers built in the U.S. during World War II, 122 were escort carriers, though no examples survive.

    Escort carrier

  • Escort carriers, usually converted merchant ships, see separate List of escort carriers by country.

    List of aircraft carriers

  • The United States Navy had a sizable fleet of escort aircraft carriers during World War II and the early Cold War era that followed.

    List of escort carriers of the United States Navy

  • An escort agency is a company that provides escorts for clients, usually for sexual services.

    Escort agency

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.