Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One or more persons accompanying another to guide, protect, or show honor.
  • noun A man who is the companion of a woman, especially on a social occasion.
  • noun A person, often a prostitute, who is hired to spend time with another as a companion.
  • noun One or more vehicles accompanying another vehicle to guide, protect, or honor its passengers.
  • noun One or more warships or planes used to defend or protect other craft from enemy attack.
  • noun The act of accompanying a person, conveyance, or group as an escort.
  • transitive verb To accompany or guide, especially as an escort: synonym: accompany.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A protecting, guiding, or honorary guard in a progress of any kind; a person or a body of persons accompanying another or others for protection, guidance, or compliment; especially, an armed guard, as a company of soldiers or a vessel or vessels of war, for the protection of travelers, merchant ships, munitions of war, treasure, or the like.
  • noun Protection, safeguard, or guidance on a journey or an excursion: as, to travel under the escort of a friend.
  • To attend and guard on a journey or voyage; accompany; convoy, as a guard, protector, or guide, or by way of compliment: as, the guards escorted the Duke of Wellington; to escort a ship, a traveler, or a lady.
  • Synonyms To conduct, convoy.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To attend with a view to guard and protect; to accompany as safeguard; to give honorable or ceremonious attendance to; -- used esp. with reference to journeys or excursions on land
  • noun A body of armed men to attend a person of distinction for the sake of affording safety when on a journey; one who conducts some one as an attendant; a guard, as of prisoners on a march; also, a body of persons, attending as a mark of respect or honor; -- applied to movements on land, as convoy is to movements at sea.
  • noun Protection, care, or safeguard on a journey or excursion.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A body of armed men to attend a person of distinction for the sake of affording safety when on a journey; one who conducts some one as an attendant; a guard, as of prisoners on a march; also, a body of persons, attending as a mark of respect or honor; -- applied to movements on land, as convoy is to movements at sea.
  • noun An accompanying person in a social gathering etc.
  • noun Protection, care, or safeguard on a journey or excursion; as, to travel under the escort of a friend.
  • noun A sex worker who does not operate in a brothel, but with whom clients make appointments; a call girl or male equivalent.
  • verb To attend with a view to guard and protect; to accompany as safeguard; to give honorable or ceremonious attendance to; -- used especially with reference to journeys or excursions on land; as, to escort a public functionary, or a lady; to escort a baggage wagon.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an attendant who is employed to accompany someone
  • verb accompany as an escort
  • noun someone who escorts and protects a prominent person
  • noun the act of accompanying someone or something in order to protect them
  • verb accompany or escort
  • noun a participant in a date

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French escorte, from Italian scorta, from scorgere, to guide, from Vulgar Latin *excorrigere : Latin ex-, ex- + Latin corrigere, to set right; see correct.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French escorte, Italian scorta a guard or guide, from scorgere to perceive, discern, lead, from Latin ex out, quite + corrigere to correct, set right. See correct.

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