6. pl. (Print.) 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 (?), 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.