COURTSHIP

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A man's courting of a woman; seeking the affections of a woman (usually with the hope of marriage)

Example:

its was a brief and intense courtship

Synonyms:

courting; courtship; suit; wooing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("courtship" is a kind of...):

appeal; entreaty; prayer (earnest or urgent request)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "courtship"):

bundling (a onetime custom during courtship of unmarried couples occupying the same bed without undressing)

Credits

Context examples:

I descended—as I might have known I should, but that he fascinated me with his boyish courtship—into a doll, a trifle for the occupation of an idle hour, to be dropped, and taken up, and trifled with, as the inconstant humour took him.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The stupidity with which he was favoured by nature must guard his courtship from any charm that could make a woman wish for its continuance; and Miss Lucas, who accepted him solely from the pure and disinterested desire of an establishment, cared not how soon that establishment were gained.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Well, I feigned courtship of Miss Ingram, because I wished to render you as madly in love with me as I was with you; and I knew jealousy would be the best ally I could call in for the furtherance of that end.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Indeed, we were all more or less amused, except that miserable Mrs. Gummidge, whose courtship would appear to have been of an exactly parallel nature, she was so continually reminded by these transactions of the old one.