escort

Formsescorts, escorting, escorted

Pluralescorts

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To accompany someone in order to protect them or others, or to attend someone ceremonially as a mark of honor.

   Police motorcycles escort the president's car from the airport to the hotel.

   The groom escorted his mother to her seat before the ceremony began.

   Similaraccompany, guard, conduct, usher

2. 2
   armed guardsnouncountable

   A group of people or vehicles, usually armed, that travels with an important person or group to keep them safe on a journey or mission.

   An armed escort of six soldiers rode with the convoy through the mountain pass.

   The prince's escort cleared a path through the crowd for his car.

   Similarguard, detail

   Note

   One escort can be a whole troop, because the noun is collective: in Arnold Henry Savage Landor's In the Forbidden Land (1898), mirth breaks out "among my escort", and the next words speak of "their superstitious minds". It is often qualified by who forms it or how they are armed: an armed escort, a cavalry escort, an escort of Malay police.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   One member of a group of guards or vehicles that travels with an important person to keep them safe.

   Each escort in the detail carried a radio and a sidearm.

   Two police escorts on motorcycles rode just ahead of the president's car.

   Similarguard, bodyguard

   Note

   Here each guard or vehicle counts on its own, so three escorts are three people or craft, where the collective use would call them one escort. At sea the escorts could be ships: in Ernest L. Secrest's My 1102 Days of W.W. II (1980), heavy waves hide them from view, though they keep station "one quarter mile to each side and ahead".

4. 4
   take to danceverbtransitive

   To go somewhere with someone as their partner, as on a formal date.

   Her cousin offered to escort her to the prom.

   A young officer escorted the ambassador's daughter to the winter ball.

   Similaraccompany, take

5. 5
   sex workernouneuphemisticcountable

   A softer word for a sex worker who sees clients by appointment rather than in a brothel; a call girl or her male counterpart.

   Police said the businessman had booked an escort through a website.

   Many escorts screen new clients before agreeing to meet them.

   Note

   Sex workers who see clients by appointment often use this gentler word for themselves: an escort service, a high-class escort. It is softer than prostitute, which is why it is chosen, and it marks a different trade from street work. Since the same word also means a social companion, context carries the meaning; in neutral writing, sex worker leaves no doubt.

6. 6
   lead outverbtransitive

   To go with someone in order to make them go somewhere, for example out of a building.

   Security escorted the protester out of the meeting hall.

   Two officers will escort him off the plane when it lands.

   Similarusher, lead, show

   Note

   The courteous verb put to a firmer use: being escorted out of a room or off a train means being made to leave, however politely it is done. It usually comes with out of or off, and often in the passive, as when a tenant "was escorted out of the hearing room", a construction that keeps the force in the background.

7. 7
   party partnernouncountable

   A person who accompanies someone to a social event or a similar occasion.

   Each debutante entered the ballroom on the arm of her escort.

   Her escort to the gala was her old college roommate.

   Similarpartner, date, companion

8. 8
   nouncountable

   A guard who travels with a dangerous person, such as a criminal, to keep other people safe.

   His escort kept one hand on the prisoner's arm the whole way through the airport.

   The suspect was flown back to Texas with two armed escorts.

   Similarguard

9. 9
   honor guardnouncountable

   A group of people who accompany someone as a mark of respect or honor.

   An escort of veterans walked beside the coffin to the cemetery gates.

   The new bishop entered the cathedral with an escort of robed clergy.

   Similarretinue, entourage

10. 10
    noununcountable

    Protection or care given to someone on a journey or outing by going along with them.

    The aid convoy crossed the border under military escort.

    Late at night, she was glad to accept a neighbor's escort to the bus stop.

    Similarprotection, guard

    Note

    Here escort is the protection itself rather than the people who give it, so it often follows under: a convoy travels under escort, or under military escort. In Horatio Alger's Brave and Bold, a girl walking home from writing school has "accepted my escort", the old courtesy of seeing someone safely home.

11. 11
    do sex workverbintransitive

    To work as an escort, that is, as a sex worker who sees clients by appointment.

    Some students escort part-time to pay their tuition.

    She escorted for three years before opening her own business.

    Note

    Built on the sex-work noun, this verb takes no object: a person escorts, or is escorting, rather than escorting someone. That missing object is what tells it apart from the guarding and partnering senses, where someone is always escorted somewhere. It can be set against related arrangements, as in "sugaring rather than just escorting".

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