COURTING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does courting mean? 

• COURTING (noun)
  The noun COURTING has 1 sense:

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

  Familiarity information: COURTING used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COURTING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

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

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

courting; courtship; suit; wooing

Context example:

its was a brief and intense courtship

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

appeal; entreaty; prayer (earnest or urgent request)

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

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

Derivation:

court (make amorous advances towards)

court (engage in social activities leading to marriage)

 Context examples 

He was courting her week after week.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

You got the young lady into your service, and there Woodley was to do the courting.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

After courting you from the protection of real friends to this—almost double distance from your home, to have you driven out of the house, without the considerations even of decent civility!

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

She saw them in an instant in their parsonage-house; saw in Lucy, the active, contriving manager, uniting at once a desire of smart appearance with the utmost frugality, and ashamed to be suspected of half her economical practices;—pursuing her own interest in every thought, courting the favour of Colonel Brandon, of Mrs. Jennings, and of every wealthy friend.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

When she saw him thus seeking the acquaintance and courting the good opinion of people with whom any intercourse a few months ago would have been a disgrace—when she saw him thus civil, not only to herself, but to the very relations whom he had openly disdained, and recollected their last lively scene in Hunsford Parsonage—the difference, the change was so great, and struck so forcibly on her mind, that she could hardly restrain her astonishment from being visible.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

With her children they were in continual raptures, extolling their beauty, courting their notice, and humouring their whims; and such of their time as could be spared from the importunate demands which this politeness made on it, was spent in admiration of whatever her ladyship was doing, if she happened to be doing any thing, or in taking patterns of some elegant new dress, in which her appearance the day before had thrown them into unceasing delight.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)