Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary, 11th Edition
ESCORT
I. noun see: correct
Date: 1579
1. a. a person or group of persons accompanying another to give protection or as a courtesy, the man who goes on a date with a woman, a protective screen of warships or fighter planes or a single ship or plane used to fend off enemy attack from one or more vulnerable craft, accompaniment by a person or an armed protector (as a ship),
II. transitive verb
Date: 1708
to accompany as an escort