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Definition 2024
hold_court
hold court
English
Verb
to hold court (third-person singular simple present holds court, present participle holding court, simple past and past participle held court)
- (of a king or other high-ranking aristocrat) To preside in a formal manner over an official assembly of courtiers and others in which entertainment is presented or affairs of state are considered.
- 1919, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan the Untamed, ch. 19:
- [T]his was one of the anterooms off the main throneroom in which the king was accustomed to hold court with his entire retinue.
- 1919, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan the Untamed, ch. 19:
- (law, of a judge or equivalent official) To convene or preside over a trial or other legal proceeding in a court of law.
- 1906, Andy Adams, "Rangering" in Cattle Brands: A Collection of Western Camp-Fire Stories:
- Bean held court in an outhouse, the prisoner seated on a bale of flint hides. Bean was not only judge but prosecutor, as well as counsel for the defense.
- 1994 August 14, Michael Janofsky, "Simpson Trial's Allure Puts State Politicians on the Spot," New York Times (retrieved 30 May 2013):
- California's Acting Secretary of State . . . asked the judge in the case not to hold court on Election Day, Nov. 8, and the day before.
- 1906, Andy Adams, "Rangering" in Cattle Brands: A Collection of Western Camp-Fire Stories:
- (idiomatic, by extension) To serve as the principal discussant or center of attention in an informal gathering of friends, associates, etc.
- 1912, E. Phillips Oppenheim, Peter Ruff and the Double Four, ch. 3:
- She was the centre of a very brilliant group, a most beautiful woman holding court, as was only right and proper, among her admirers.
- 2012 April 18, Anthony Bourdain, "José Andrés: Activist," Time
- Suddenly I heard a familiar laugh, headed down to the bar and found José Andrés holding court with journalists on behalf of a solar-powered cookstove that cheaply boils water for people with little or no access to fuel.
- 2013 April 1, Douglas Martin, "Ralph Klein, 70, Politician in Alberta Oil Boom, Dies," New York Times (retrieved 30 May 2013):
- With a rumpled, folksy manner, he held court for years in the smoke-filled beer hall of the King Louis Hotel in Calgary.
- 1912, E. Phillips Oppenheim, Peter Ruff and the Double Four, ch. 3:
References
- hold court at OneLook Dictionary Search