courtier Definition
cour·tier (kôrt′ē ər, -yər)
noun
- an attendant at a royal court
- a person who uses flattery to get something or to win favor
Etymology: ME curteour < OFr cortoier, to frequent the court < court, cort, court
courtier Synonyms
courtier Usage Examples
Converse of object
- become: His father made his fortune as an upholsterer and then became a courtier to King Louis XIV.
- favor: The Dissolution was also highly profitable for favored courtiers who were able to obtain property on generous terms.
- fawn: It was so ludicrous it made you think of Mel Brooks or Monty Python playing a scene of monstrous king and fawning courtiers.
- assemble: The aim was to blow up the king, James I, and assembled courtiers and lords, at the state opening of parliament.
- trust: In Polonius we see an accomplished spy and a trusted courtier whose service to both Kings has been regarded as valuable.
- leave: Charles II and his courtiers left in July for Hampton Court and then Oxford.
Adjective modifier
- Elizabethan: The dashing escapades of courageous men who brought wealth to Queen Elizabeth were also included in the ranks of Elizabethan courtiers.
- favorite: Question 2: How did you become one of the Queen's favorite courtiers?
- powerful: The Affair Pembroke was a popular and powerful courtier, a poet and a well-known patron of literature.
- former: Next for the chop were former courtiers Patrick Sikorski and Brian Heron and their Fourth International Supporters Caucus.
- French: I have heard you say that the French courtiers Wear their hats on ' fore that king.
- English: Orders the English courtiers to have theirs cut short too, to show sympathy, but grows his own long again quite soon.
Modifies a noun
..: For in order that virtue be unharmed, one must turn aside from the life of the courtier...
Possessives
word: The courtier's words influence the powerful, and the daimyo make decisions that influence thousands of lives.
Possessives
king: Closely followed by the new king's courtiers, Ophelia must leave her home forever, carrying a dangerous, yet precious secret.
Preposition: in
reign: His grandfather, Sir Richard Southwell, had been a wealthy man and a prominent courtier in the reign of Henry VIII.
Browse dictionary entries near courtier
- ‹ courthouse
- ‹ courtesy card
- ‹ courtesy
- ‹ courtesan
- ‹ courteously
- ‹ courteous
- ‹ court tennis
- ‹ court shoe
- ‹ court rules
- ‹ court reports

