Other forms: sallies
A sally is a sudden rush out from a defended position. Make a sally, a sally from the gate, the sally was beaten back.
The besieged make one to burn siege engines or seize supplies, and the gate they use is called a sally port. The word also means a witty remark, which comes from the same idea of darting out.
1nounsallyA sudden rush out from a defended position.
“During the long siege, the defenders made a sally at night and burned the enemy's tents.”
sally is an attack.
French saillie comes from saillir, to leap forth, from Latin salire, to jump.
Old English
saliġ
Middle English
saly
English, today
sally
Built from
From Middle English saly, from Old English saliġ, sealh (“willow”). More at sallow.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire