The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Sort \Sort\, n. [F. sorie (cf. It. sorta, sorte), from L. sors,
   sorti, a lot, part, probably akin to serere to connect. See
   Series, and cf. 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.
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   2. Manner; form of being or acting.
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            Which for my part I covet to perform,
            In sort as through the world I did proclaim.
                                                  --Spenser.
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            Flowers, in such sort worn, can neither be smelt nor
            seen well by those that wear them.    --Hooker.
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            I'll deceive you in another sort.     --Shak.
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            To Adam in what sort
            Shall I appear?                       --Milton.
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            I shall not be wholly without praise, if in some
            sort I have copied his style.         --Dryden.
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   3. Condition above the vulgar; rank. [Obs.] --Shak.
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   4. A chance group; a company of persons who happen to be
      together; a troop; also, an assemblage of animals. [Obs.]
      "A sort of shepherds." --Spenser. "A sort of steers."
      --Spenser. "A sort of doves." --Dryden. "A sort of
      rogues." --Massinger.
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            A boy, a child, and we a sort of us,
            Vowed against his voyage.             --Chapman.
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   5. A pair; a set; a suit. --Johnson.
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   6. pl. (Print.) Letters, figures, points, marks, spaces, or
      quadrats, belonging to a case, separately considered.
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   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.
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   Syn: Kind; species; rank; condition.

   Usage: 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.