COURT, n.

1. A place in front of a house, inclosed by a wall or fence; in popular language, a court-yard. – Bacon. Dryden.
2. A space inclosed by houses, broader than a street; or a space forming a kind of recess from a public street.
3. A palace; the place of residence of a king or sovereign prince. – Europe.
4. The hall, chamber or place where justice is administered. St. Paul was brought into the highest court in Athens. – Atterbury.
5. Persons who compose the retinue or council of a king or emperor. – Temple.
6. The persons or judges assembled for hearing and deciding causes, civil, criminal, military, naval, or ecclesiastical; as, a court of law; a court of chancery; a court martial; a court of admiralty; an ecclesiastical court; court baron, &c. Hence,
7. Any jurisdiction, civil, military, or ecclesiastical.
8. The art of pleasing; the art of insinuation; civility; flattery; address to gain favor. Hence the phrase, to make court, to attempt to please by flattery and address.
9. In Scripture, an enclosed part of the entrance into a palace or house. The tabernacle had one court; the temple three. The first was the court of the Gentiles; the second, the court of Israel, in which the people worshiped; the third was the court of the priests, where the priests and Levites exercised their ministry. Hence places of public worship are called the courts of the Lord.
10. In the United States, a legislature consisting of two houses; as the General Court of Massachusetts. The original constitution of Connecticut established a General Court in 1639. – B. Trumbull.
11. A session of the Legislature.

1. In a general sense, to flatter; to endeavor to please by civilities and address; a use of the word derived from the manners of a court.
2. To woo; to solicit for marriage. A thousand court you, though they court in vain. – Pope.
3. To attempt to gain by address; to solicit; to seek; as, to court commendation or applause.

1. An inclosed space; a courtyard; an uncovered area shut in by the walls of a building, or by different building; also, a space opening from a street and nearly surrounded by houses; a blind alley.
   
   

   The courts of the house of our God.
   Ps. cxxxv. 2.

   And round the cool green courts there ran a row
   Of cloisters.
   Tennyson.

   Goldsmith took a garret in a miserable court.
   Macaulay.

2. To endeavor to gain the favor of by attention or flattery] to try to ingratiate one's self with.
   
   

   By one person, hovever, Portland was still assiduously courted.
   Macaulay.

3. To play the lover; to woo; as, to go courting.
4. An incubator for sickly infants, esp. those prematurely born.
5. The residence of a sovereign, prince, nobleman, or other dignitary; a palace.
   
   

   Attends the emperor in his royal court.
   Shak.

   This our court, infected with their manners,
   Shows like a riotous inn.
   Shak.

6. To endeavor to gain the affections of; to seek in marriage; to woo.
   
   

   If either of you both love Katharina . . .
   Leave shall you have to court her at your pleasure.
   Shak.

7. The collective body of persons composing the retinue of a sovereign or person high in authority; all the surroundings of a sovereign in his regal state.
   
   

   My lord, there is a nobleman of the court at door would speak with you.
   Shak.

   Love rules the court, the camp, the grove.
   Sir. W. Scott.

8. To attempt to gain; to solicit; to seek.
   
   

   They might almost seem to have courted the crown of martyrdom.
   Prescott.

   Guilt and misery . . . court privacy and solitude.
   De Quincey.

9. Any formal assembling of the retinue of a sovereign; as, to hold a court.
   
   

   The princesses held their court within the fortress.
   Macaulay.

10. To invite by attractions; to allure; to attract.
    
    

    A well-worn pathway courted us
    To one green wicket in a privet hedge.
    Tennyson.

11. Attention directed to a person in power; conduct or address designed to gain favor; courtliness of manners; civility; compliment; flattery.
    
    

    No solace could her paramour intreat
    Her once to show, ne court, nor dalliance.
    Spenser.

    I went to make my court to the Duke and Duchess of Newcastle.
    Evelyn.

12. The hall, chamber, or place, where justice is administered.
    
    
    (b)
13. The session of a judicial assembly.
14. Any jurisdiction, civil, military, or ecclesiastical.
15. A place arranged for playing the game of tennis; also, one of the divisions of a tennis court.
    
    

    Christian court, the English ecclesiastical courts in the aggregate, or any one of them. -- Court breeding, education acquired at court. -- Court card. Same as Coat card. -- Court circular, one or more paragraphs of news respecting the sovereign and the royal family, together with the proceedings or movements of the court generally, supplied to the newspapers by an officer specially charged with such duty. [Eng.] Edwards. -- Court day, a day on which a court sits to administer justice. -- Court dress, the dress prescribed for appearance at the court of a sovereign. -- Court fool, a buffoon or jester, formerly kept by princes and nobles for their amusement. -- Court guide, a directory of the names and adresses of the nobility and gentry in a town. -- Court hand, the hand or manner of writing used in records and judicial proceedings. Shak. -- Court lands (Eng. Law), lands kept in demesne, -- that is, for the use of the lord and his family. -- Court marshal, one who acts as marshal for a court. -- Court party, a party attached to the court. -- Court rolls, the records of a court. SeeRoll. -- Court in banc, or Court in bank, The full court sitting at its regular terms for the hearing of arguments upon questions of law, as distinguished from a sitting at nisi prius. - - Court of Arches, audience, etc. See under Arches, Audience, etc. -- Court of Chancery. See Chancery, n. -- Court of Common pleas. (Law) See Common pleas, under Common. -- Court of Equity. See under Equity, and Chancery. -- Court of Inquiry (Mil.) , a court appointed to inquire into and report on some military matter, as the conduct of an officer. -- Court of St. James, the usual designation of the British Court; -- so called from the old palace of St. James, which is used for the royal receptions, levees, and drawing-rooms. -- The court of the Lord, the temple at Jerusalem; hence, a church, or Christian house of worship. - - General Court, the legislature of a State; -- so called from having had, in the colonial days, judicial power; as, the General Court of Massachusetts. [U.S.] -- To pay one's court, to seek to gain favor by attentions. "Alcibiades was assiduous in paying his court to Tissaphernes." Jowett. -- To put out of court, to refuse further judicial hearing.