So-so adjective [ So + so .] Neither very good nor very bad; middling; passable; tolerable; indifferent.

In some Irish houses, where things are so- so ,
One gammon of bacon hangs up for a show.

Goldsmith.

He [ Burns] certainly wrote some so-so verses to the Tree of Liberty.

Prof. Wilson.

So-so adverb Tolerably; passably. H. James.

Sorry adjective [ Compar. Sorrier ; superl. Sorriest .] [ Middle English sory , sary , Anglo-Saxon sārig , from sār , noun , sore . See Sore , noun & adjective The original sense was, painful; hence, miserable, sad.]
1. Grieved for the loss of some good; pained for some evil; feeling regret; -- now generally used to express light grief or affliction, but formerly often used to express deeper feeling. "I am sorry for my sins." Piers Plowman.

Ye were made sorry after a godly manner.

2 Cor. vii. 9.

I am sorry for thee, friend; 't is the duke's pleasure.

Shak.

She entered, were he lief or sorry .

Spenser.

2. Melancholy; dismal; gloomy; mournful. Spenser.

All full of chirking was this sorry place.

Chaucer.

3. Poor; mean; worthless; as, a sorry excuse. "With sorry grace." Chaucer.

Cheeks of sorry grain will serve.

Milton.

Good fruit will sometimes grow on a sorry tree.

Sir W. Scott.

Syn. -- Hurt; afflicted; mortified; vexed; chagrined; melancholy; dismal; poor; mean; pitiful.

Sors noun ; plural Sortes . [ Latin ] A lot; also, a kind of divination by means of lots.

Sortes Homericæ or Virgilianæ [ Latin , Homeric or Virgilian lots], a form of divination anciently practiced, which consisted in taking the first passage on which the eye fell, upon opening a volume of Homer or Virgil, or a passage drawn from an urn which several were deposited, as indicating future events, or the proper course to be pursued. In later times the Bible was used for the same purpose by Christians.

Sort noun [ French sorl , Latin sors , sortis . See Sort kind.] Chance; lot; destiny. [ Obsolete]

By aventure, or sort , or cas [ chance].

Chaucer.

Let blockish Ajax draw
The sort to fight with Hector.

Shak.

Sort noun [ French sorie (cf. Italian sorta , sorte ), from Latin sors , sorti , a lot, part, probably akin to serere to connect. See Series , and confer Assort , Consort , Resort , Sorcery , Sort lot.]
1. A kind or species; any number or collection of individual persons or things characterized by the same or like qualities; a class or order; as, a sort of men; a sort of horses; a sort of trees; a sort of poems.

2. Manner; form of being or acting.

Which for my part I covet to perform,
In sort as through the world I did proclaim.

Spenser.

Flowers, in such sort worn, can neither be smelt nor seen well by those that wear them.

Hooker.

I'll deceive you in another sort .

Shak.

To Adam in what sort
Shall I appear?

Milton.

I shall not be wholly without praise, if in some sort I have copied his style.

Dryden.

3. Condition above the vulgar; rank. [ Obsolete] Shak.

4. A chance group; a company of persons who happen to be together; a troop; also, an assemblage of animals. [ Obsolete] "A sort of shepherds." Spenser. "A sort of steers." Spenser. "A sort of doves." Dryden. "A sort of rogues." Massinger.

A boy, a child, and we a sort of us,
Vowed against his voyage.

Chapman.

5. A pair; a set; a suit. Johnson.

6. plural (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 transitive verb [ imperfect & past participle Sorted ; present participle & verbal noun 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 intransitive verb
1. To join or associate with others, esp. with others of the same kind or species; to agree.

Nor do metals only sort and herd with metals in the earth, and minerals with minerals.

Woodward.

The illiberality of parents towards children makes them base, and sort with any company.

Bacon.

2. To suit; to fit; to be in accord; to harmonize.

They are happy whose natures sort with their vocations.

Bacon.

Things sort not to my will.

herbert.

I can not tell you precisely how they sorted .

Sir W. Scott.

Sortable adjective [ Confer French sortable suitable.]
1. Capable of being sorted.

2. Suitable; befitting; proper. [ Obsolete] con.

Sortably adverb Suitable. [ Obsolete] otgrave.

Sortal adjective Pertaining to a sort. [ Obsolete] Locke.

Sortance noun [ From Sort , intransitive verb ] Suitableness; agreement. [ Obsolete] hak.

Sorter noun One who, or that which, sorts.

Sortes noun , plural of Sors .

Sortie noun [ French, from sortir to go out, to issue, probably from Latin sortus , for surrectus , past participle of surgere to raise up, to rise up. See Source .] (Mil.) The sudden issuing of a body of troops, usually small, from a besieged place to attack or harass the besiegers; a sally.

Sortilege noun [ French sortilège , from Latin sors , sortis , a lot + legere to gather, to select.] The act or practice of drawing lots; divination by drawing lots.

A woman infamous for sortileges and witcheries.

Sir W. Scott.

Sortilegious adjective Pertaining to sortilege.

Sortilegy noun Sortilege. [ R.] De Quincey.

Sortita noun [ Italian , a coming out.]
1. The air sung by any of the principal characters in an opera on entering.

2. A closing voluntary; a postlude.

Sortition noun [ Latin sortitio , from sortiri to draw or cast lots, from sors , sortis , a lot.] Selection or appointment by lot. [ Obsolete] Bp. Hall.

Sortment noun Assortiment. [ Obsolete]

Sorus noun ; plural Sori . [ New Latin , from Greek ... a heap.] (Botany) One of the fruit dots, or small clusters of sporangia, on the back of the fronds of ferns.

Sorus noun (a) In parasitic fungi, any mass of spores bursting through the epidermis of a host plant. (b) In lichens, a heap of soredia on the thallus.

Sorwe noun & v. Sorrow. [ Obsolete] Chaucer.

Sorweful adjective Sorrowful. [ Obsolete] Chaucer.

Sory noun [ Latin sory , Greek ....] (Old Min. Chem.) Green vitriol, or some earth imregnated with it.

SOS The letters signified by the signal ( . . . --- . . . ) prescribed by the International Radiotelegraphic Convention of 1912 for use by ships in distress.

Soss intransitive verb [ Confer Souse .] To fall at once into a chair or seat; to sit lazily. [ Obsolete] Swift.

Soss transitive verb To throw in a negligent or careless manner; to toss. [ Obsolete] Swift.

Soss noun
1. A lazy fellow. [ Obsolete] Cotgrave.

2. A heavy fall. [ Prov. Eng.] Hallowell.

Soss noun [ See Sesspol .] Anything dirty or muddy; a dirty puddle. [ Prov. Eng.]

Sostenuto adjective [ Italian ] (Mus.) Sustained; -- applied to a movement or passage the sounds of which are to sustained to the utmost of the nominal value of the time; also, to a passage the tones of which are to be somewhat prolonged or protacted.

Sot noun [ French, from Late Latin sottus ; of unknown origin, confer Ir. sotal pride, soithir proud, or Chald. & NHeb. shoten foolish.]
1. A stupid person; a blockhead; a dull fellow; a dolt. [ Obsolete] outh.

In Egypt oft has seen the sot bow down,
And reverence some d...ified baboon.

Oldham.

2. A person stupefied by excessive drinking; an habitual drunkard. "A brutal sot ." Granville.

Every sign
That calls the staring sots to nasty wine.

Roscommon.

Sot adjective Sottish; foolish; stupid; dull. [ Obsolete] "Rich, but sot ." Marston.

Sot transitive verb To stupefy; to infatuate; to besot. [ R.]

I hate to see a brave, bold fellow sotted .

Dryden.

Sot intransitive verb To tipple to stupidity. [ R.] Goldsmith.

Sotadean adjective Sotadic.

Sotadic adjective Pertaining to, or resembling, the lascivious compositions of the Greek poet Sotades . -- noun A Sotadic verse or poem.

Sote adjective Sweet. [ Obsolete] Chaucer. Fairfax.

Sotel, Sotil adjective Subtile. [ Obsolete]

Soteriology noun [ Greek ... safety (from ... saving, ... a savoir, ... to save) + -logy .]
1. A discourse on health, or the science of promoting and preserving health.

2. (Theol.) The doctrine of salvation by Jesus Christ.

Sothe adjective Sooth. [ Obsolete] Chaucer.

Sothiac, Sothic adjective Of or pertaining to Sothis, the Egyptian name for the Dog Star; taking its name from the Dog Star; canicular.

Sothiac , or Sothic , year (Chronol.) , the Egyptian year of 365 days and 6 hours, as distinguished from the Egyptian vague year , which contained 365 days. The Sothic period consists of 1,460 Sothic years, being equal to 1,461 vague years. One of these periods ended in July, a.d. 139.

Sotilte noun Subtlety. [ Obsolete] Chaucer.

Sotted adjective & past participle of Sot . Befooled; deluded; besotted. [ Obsolete] "This sotted priest." Chaucer.

Sottery noun Folly. [ Obsolete] Gauden.

Sottish adjective [ From Sot .] Like a sot; doltish; very foolish; drunken.

How ignorant are sottish pretenders to astrology!

Swift.

Syn. -- Dull; stupid; senseless; doltish; infatuate.

-- Sot"tish*ly , adverb -- Sot"tish*ness , noun

Sotto voce [ Italian ]
1. (Mus.) With a restrained voice or moderate force; in an undertone.

2. Spoken low or in an undertone.

Sou noun ; plural Sous or . [ French sou , Old French sol , from Latin solidus a gold coin, in Late Latin , a coin of less value. See Sold , noun , Solid , and and confer Sol , Soldo .] An old French copper coin, equivalent in value to, and now displaced by, the five-centime piece (&frac1x20; of a franc), which is popularly called a sou .

Souari nut (Botany) The large edible nutlike seed of a tall tropical American tree ( Caryocar nuciferum ) of the same natural order with the tea plant; -- also called butternut . [ Written also sawarra nut .]