| / English Dictionary |
COURTIER
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
An attendant at the court of a sovereign
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("courtier" is a kind of...):
attendant; attender; tender (someone who waits on or tends to or attends to the needs of another)
Instance hyponyms:
Damocles (the Greek courtier to Dionysius the Elder who (according to legend) was condemned to sit under a naked sword that was suspended by a hair in order to demonstrate to him that being a king was not the happy state Damocles had said it was (4th century BC))
Comtesse Du Barry; Du Barry; Marie Jeanne Becu (courtier and influential mistress of Louis XV who was guillotined during the French Revolution (1743-1793))
Ralegh; Raleigh; Sir Walter Ralegh; Sir Walter Raleigh; Walter Ralegh; Walter Raleigh (English courtier (a favorite of Elizabeth I) who tried to colonize Virginia; introduced potatoes and tobacco to England (1552-1618))
Sir John Suckling; Suckling (English poet and courtier (1609-1642))
Context examples:
The ladies and courtiers were all most magnificently clad; so that the spot they stood upon seemed to resemble a petticoat spread upon the ground, embroidered with figures of gold and silver.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Meanwhile the princess was eagerly waiting till her deliverer should come back; and had a road made leading up to her palace all of shining gold; and told her courtiers that whoever came on horseback, and rode straight up to the gate upon it, was her true lover; and that they must let him in: but whoever rode on one side of it, they must be sure was not the right one; and that they must send him away at once.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
Down this, amid the shouts of the enormous multitude, the prince cantered with his two attendant kings, his high officers of state, and his long train of lords and ladies, courtiers, counsellors, and soldiers, with toss of plume and flash of jewel, sheen of silk and glint of gold—as rich and gallant a show as heart could wish.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Yet, as to myself, I must confess, having never been designed for a courtier, either by my birth or education, I was so ill a judge of things, that I could not discover the lenity and favour of this sentence, but conceived it (perhaps erroneously) rather to be rigorous than gentle.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
On the second morning, about eleven o’clock, the king himself in person, attended by his nobility, courtiers, and officers, having prepared all their musical instruments, played on them for three hours without intermission, so that I was quite stunned with the noise; neither could I possibly guess the meaning, till my tutor informed me.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
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