COURTYARD

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does courtyard mean? 

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

1. an area wholly or partly surrounded by walls or buildings

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• COURTYARD (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An area wholly or partly surrounded by walls or buildings

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

court; courtyard

Context example:

the house was built around an inner court

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

area (a part of a structure having some specific characteristic or function)

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

atrium (the central area in a building; open to the sky)

bailey (the outer courtyard of a castle)

cloister (a courtyard with covered walks (as in religious institutions))

food court (an area (as in a shopping mall) where fast food is sold (usually around a common eating area))

forecourt (the outer or front court of a building or of a group of buildings)

parvis (a courtyard or portico in front of a building (especially a cathedral))

Holonyms ("courtyard" is a part of...):

building; edifice (a structure that has a roof and walls and stands more or less permanently in one place)

 Context examples 

We were now within the little courtyard of the Doctor's cottage.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It opened on to a squalid courtyard.

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

Presently I heard Pilot bark far below, out of his distant kennel in the courtyard: hope revived.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

In the gloom the courtyard looked of considerable size, and as several dark ways led from it under great round arches, it perhaps seemed bigger than it really is.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

In his trouble and fear he went down into the courtyard and took thought how to help himself out of his trouble.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

At their very feet was the square courtyard, crowded with the howling and dancing peasants, their fierce faces upturned, their clenched hands waving, all drunk with bloodshed and with vengeance.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She did not hear him cross the courtyard beyond, nor see him pause in the archway that led from the subterranean path into the garden.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Then, being at last free to do as she chose, she ran out to the courtyard to tell the Lion that the Wicked Witch of the West had come to an end, and that they were no longer prisoners in a strange land.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

I took refuge in the courtyard belonging to the house which I inhabited, where I remained during the rest of the night, walking up and down in the greatest agitation, listening attentively, catching and fearing each sound as if it were to announce the approach of the demoniacal corpse to which I had so miserably given life.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Before many minutes had passed a pack of them poured, like a pent-up dam when liberated, through the wide entrance into the courtyard.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)