Etimology
From Middle English court, from Old French cort, curt, from Latin cōrtem (accusative of cōrs), ultimately from cohors. Doublet of cohort.
noun
court (plural courts)
An enclosed space; a courtyard; an uncovered area shut in by the walls of a building, or by different buildings; also, a space opening from a street and nearly surrounded by houses; a blind alley.
(social) Royal society.
Attention directed to a person in power; behaviour designed to gain favor; politeness of manner; civility towards someone
(law) The administration of law.
(sports) A place arranged for playing the games of tennis, basketball, handball, badminton, volleyball, squash and some other games
(ornithology) A space prepared and decorated by certain bird species in which to advertise themselves for a mate.
Examples
The girls were playing in the court.
All round the cool green courts there ran a row / Of cloisters, branched like mighty woods, / Echoing all night to that sonorous flow / Of spouted fountain floods.
Goldsmith took a garret in a miserable court.
The noblemen visited the queen in her court.
This our court, infected with their manners, / Shows like a riotous inn.
The queen and her court traveled to the city to welcome back the soldiers.
My lord, there is a nobleman of the court at door would speak with you.
Love rules the court, the camp, the grove.
The princesses […] held their court within the fortress.
No solace could her paramour entreat / Her once to show, ne court, nor dalliance.
I went to make court to the Duke and Duchess of Newcastle at their house in Clerkenwell.
Many famous criminals have been put on trial in this court.
The court started proceedings at 11 o'clock.
Next month, Clemons will be brought before a court presided over by a "special master", who will review the case one last time. The hearing will be unprecedented in its remit, but at its core will be a simple issue: should Reggie Clemons live or die?
536. ... You have the option to elect to be tried by a provincial court judge without a jury; or you may elect to be tried by a judge without a jury; or you may elect to be tried by a court composed of a judge and jury.
Each province in Canada has three courts: a provincial court, a superior court, and a court of appeals.
A case conference in person was convened.... To emphasize that it was a Court proceeding the Court was gowned.
[5]... defence alleges there is a reasonable apprehension of bias based on the cumulative effect of several issues including the following: The Court was “crying” during the victim impact statement; The Court laughed or “scoffed” when defence stated its sentencing position; ... The Court’s tone, facial expression and demeanor throughout the proceedings...
The court is now in session.
On Thursday morning, a Hennepin County judge formally sentenced Julissa Thaler to the life sentence for Eli Hart's murder. […] After court, family said their focus now turns to fundraising a playground in Mound in Eli Hart's honor […]
The local sports club has six tennis courts and two squash courts.
The shuttlecock landed outside the court.
By one o'clock the place was choc-a-bloc. […] The restaurant was packed, and the promenade between the two main courts and the subsidiary courts was thronged with healthy-looking youngish people, drawn to the Mecca of tennis from all parts of the country.
The photograph at left captures a great serve by Dr. Sadowsky, who will never forget one of Bobby Riggs's serves, which had such a great spin that it landed in his court and bounced back to the other side of the net before he had a chance to return it.
The male Wilson's bird of paradise clears an area of rainforest to create a court in which to perform an elaborate mating dance.
verb
court (third-person singular simple present courts, present participle courting, simple past and past participle courted)
(transitive) To seek to achieve or win.
(transitive) To risk (a consequence, usually negative).
(transitive) To try to win a commitment to marry from.
(transitive) To engage in behavior leading to mating.
(transitive) To attempt to attract.
(transitive) To invite by attractions; to allure; to attract.
(transitive) To attempt to gain alliance with.
(intransitive) To engage in activities intended to win someone's affections.
(intransitive) To engage in courtship behavior.
Examples
He was courting big new accounts that previous salesman had not attempted.
On the contrary, they employed the brief respite that was left them in fortifying one another's courage, and in bearing testimony to the truth in so earnest a manner that they might almost seem to have courted the crown of martyrdom.
Guilt and misery shrink, by a natural instinct, from public notice: they court privacy and solitude: and even in their choice of a grave will sometimes sequester themselves from the general population of the churchyard […]
He courted controversy with his frank speeches.
It is not unknown for hot axleboxes to fail completely and for wagons to become derailed as a result. Surely it is courting disaster to allow a train to proceed for up to seven miles with a defective vehicle before it can be brought to a halt?
If either of you both love Katharina […] / Leave shall you have to court her at your pleasure.
The bird was courting by making an elaborate dance.
By one person, however, Portland was still assiduously courted, and that person was the king.
Synonyms: charm, entrance; see also Thesaurus:allure
[…] a well-worn pathway courted us / To one green wicket in a privet hedge […]
It is a grim, grey old town, standing on bleak, precipitous cliffs that court every passing hurricane, […]
Synonyms: romance, solicit; see also Thesaurus:woo
She's had a few beaus come courting.
In this season, you can see many animals courting.