COURTIER

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does courtier mean? 

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

1. an attendant at the court of a sovereign

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• COURTIER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An attendant at the court of a sovereign

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

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 

And when she was grown up, the king looked at her and saw that she was just like this late queen: then he said to his courtiers, May I not marry my daughter?

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

He bowed, and Chandos, plucking Sir Oliver by the sleeve, led them both away to the back of the press of courtiers.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

For, instead of a long train with royal diadems, I saw in one family two fiddlers, three spruce courtiers, and an Italian prelate.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I don't know what Sir Thomas may think of such matters; he may be too much of the courtier and fine gentleman to like his daughter the less.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Nothing less than the complaisance of a courtier could have borne without anger such treatment; but Sir William's good breeding carried him through it all; and though he begged leave to be positive as to the truth of his information, he listened to all their impertinence with the most forbearing courtesy.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

When the courtiers heard this they were shocked, and said, “Heaven forbid that a father should marry his daughter! Out of so great a sin no good can come.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Below on either side of the steps were forty or fifty barons, knights, and courtiers, ranged in a triple row to the right and the left, with a clear passage in the centre.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Neither had I so soon learned the gratitude of courtiers, to persuade myself, that his majesty’s present seventies acquitted me of all past obligations.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The counsel pleased the king, and he sent one of his courtiers to the little tailor to offer him military service when he awoke.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Here rode dark-browed cavaliers from the sunny south, fiery soldiers from Gascony, graceful courtiers of Limousin or Saintonge, and gallant young Englishmen from beyond the seas.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)