From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsallysal‧ly1 /ˈsæli/ noun (plural sallies) [countable] formal 1 PMa sudden quick attack and return to a position of defence2 SAYan intelligent remark that is intended to amuse people
Examples from the Corpus
sally• Oliver swept off his battered top hat in ironic acknowledgement of her sally.• No sallies once they get there.• Monk treats Russell's sallies with humourless seriousness, trying to get us to see them as proof of intellectual irresponsibility.sallysally2 verb (sallied, sallying, sallies) → sally forth→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
sally• But Tommy was so good natured about everything and he would sally forth and start asking people where his strays might be.• We need, therefore, to sally forth once more into the mathematical jungle of vector spaces.• Their mountainous homeland with its fortress valleys was a near impregnable base from which to sally forth.• From their orbital hive-turned-fortress, they would sally out against whoever was left and eat them alive.• At the very least they must be contained and never allowed to sally out.Origin sally1 (1500-1600) Old French saillie, from saillir “to run forward”, from Latin salire “to jump” 