Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Suitable for a royal court; stately: courtly furniture and pictures.
- adj. Elegant; refined: courtly manners.
- adj. Flattering in an insincere way; obsequious.
- adv. In a courtly manner; elegantly or politely.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Pertaining or relating to a court or to courts.
- Elegant; polite; refined; courteous: as, “courtly accents fine,”
- Disposed to court the great; somewhat obsequious; flattering.
- In the manner of courts; elegantly; in a gracious or flattering manner.
Wiktionary
- adj. Suitable for a royal court; refined, dignified.
- adj. Obsequious, flattering.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Relating or belonging to a court.
- adj. Elegant; polite; courtlike; flattering.
- adj. Disposed to favor the great; favoring the policy or party of the court; obsequious.
- adv. In the manner of courts; politely; gracefully; elegantly.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. refined or imposing in manner or appearance; befitting a royal court
Etymologies
- From court + -ly. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“She received foreign ambassadors, royal messengers and engaged in courtly pastimes.”
“He sat down and addressed the Caliph in courtly phrase, saying, “O Commander of the Faithful, I have brought with me an humble offering by way of homage: have I thy gracious permission to produce it?””
“Sevdah bears comparison to Portuguese fado and Spanish flamenco; all three are vocal arts rooted in Arabic courtly love songs from a millennium ago.”
“Took her hand, bending down he kissed it in courtly fashion 202”
“He took her hand and bending down he kissed it in courtly fashion.”
“A purpose to serve, a treaty becomes "a scrap" -- in German courtly hands.”
Raemaekers' Cartoons With Accompanying Notes by Well-known English Writers
“Spanish colonizers brought with them the idea of courtly love — the rather formalized notion of wooing a beloved, even though that love might never be returned.”
The Wall Street Journal: Single Asian President Seeks Soul Mate for Very Public Romance
“It was a daring public statement given that Colombina was now married to Niccolò Ardinghelli, so all of it was done under the auspices of the troubadours, emphasizing the notion of courtly love and the ideal of untouchable beauty.”
“I think this may be an extreme example of what Anne Fadiman calls a courtly book lover.”
“Her beauty bore the marks of intelligence; her manner was not enough self-contained to be called courtly; yet it was easy, and carried its own certificate of culture; it yielded too much to natural affection to deserve the term dignified.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘courtly’.
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Stuffie: Love
Love and all that stuff.
puppy, triangle, tough, first, in the third degree, handles, endless, bite, shack, bird, potion, tainted and 29 more...
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phuzzy's Words
entomophagan, corpuscle, mellifluence, haberdasher, milliner, tow, spartan, bdellotomy, trepan, trephine, congenial, courtly and 208 more...
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KaeZoo's Words
flingers, unhinged, driven, flanked, arboreal, venerable, endearing, iconoclastic, fletcher, competent, fireproof, cavernous and 215 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, C
cryptoxanthin, convent, calcar, chuckle, campanile, covet, complexion, campestral, chirography, counterscarp, caliginous, catabolism and 722 more...
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simple & useful13
rookeries, bottommost, nettlesome, extravaganza, galoot, gun moll, kludge, pollyannaish, bushwhacking, revivable, flourishing, resurgence and 97 more...
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Seven
turnskin, therianthrope, mimic, mimical, mimetic, animagus, selkie, incantatory, cynanthrope, therianthropy, nagual, pooka and 200 more...
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Beautiful
lissome, evanesce, cygnet, limpid, hoarfrost, lucent, liminal, reverie, chimerical, darkling, gossamer, ephemeral and 4 more...
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actions
ritual, communion, baptism, wedding, funeral, cremation, burial, sacrifice, election, interview, meeting, dating and 19 more...
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descriptors - adjectives
lanky, propitious, courtly, resplendent, devious, errant, deserted, devilish, dilapidated, diabolical, cold, obfuscation and 81 more...
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