sallyportn.
1. Fortification. An opening in a fortified place for the passage of troops when making a sally; sometimes used for ‘postern’. Also transferred and figurative.
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society > armed hostility > defence > defensive work(s) > gate > [noun] > sallyport
sally1542
sallyport1651
postern1704
sortie1848
1651 J. Cleveland Poems (Wing C4684) 3 My slippery soul had quit the fort, But that she stopt the Salley-port.
a1657 G. Daniel Trinarchodia: Henry IV cccxii, in Poems (1878) IV. 79 Soe lyes the Worme, safe in her treeble hedge And eats the Purple Garden, ere wee find Her Sally-Ports.
1688 J. S. Fortification 69 Little Ports are made in the middle of the Courtains..called Sally-Ports.
1694 W. Congreve Double-dealer iv. ii. 60 Were you provided for an Escape? Hold, Madam, you have no more holes to your Burrough, I'll stand between you and this Sally-Port.
1704 London Gaz. No. 4008/2 The rest made their Escape out of a Sally-Port.
1802 C. James New Mil. Dict. Sally-ports, or postern-gates..are those underground passages, which lead from the inner to the outward works.
1819 W. Scott Ivanhoe II. xv. 290 In the outwork was a sally-port corresponding to the postern of the castle.
1859 F. A. Griffiths Artillerist's Man. (1862) 261 The Sallyports are openings cut in the glacis... They are used in making sallies from the covered way.
2. (See quot. 1867.)
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society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > parts of vessels > other parts of body of vessel > [noun] > opening in side of vessel > for escape
sallyport1753
1753 Chambers's Cycl. Suppl. Sally-port, in a fire ship, is a great opening in her side..for the men to escape by, when they have..fired their train.
1769 W. Falconer Universal Dict. Marine at Fire-ship Two troughs of communication from each door of the fire-room to the sally-ports, must be laid.
1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. Sally~port,..a large port on each quarter of a fire-ship, out of which the officers and crew make their escape into the boats... Also, the entering port of a three-decker.
3. A landing-place at Portsmouth set apart for the use of men-of-war's boats (Adm. Smyth).
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society > travel > travel by water > berthing, mooring, or anchoring > harbour or port > [noun] > landing-place > specific
sallyport1814
townhithe1922
1814 J. Austen Mansfield Park III. vii. 161 The three boys..determined to see their brother..to the salley-port . View more context for this quotation
1834 F. Marryat Peter Simple I. iv. 46 The porter wheeled my chest down to the Sally Port.
1836 F. Marryat Mr. Midshipman Easy I. xi. 164 After which hour the Sally Port is only opened by special permission.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1909; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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