courtful

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English

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Etymology

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From court +‎ -ful.

Noun

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courtful (plural courtsful or courtfuls)

  1. As much as a court would hold.
    • 1892, Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood: Reprinted Pieces, and Other Stories, page 336:
      Worldly little devil, I would stand about, musingly fitting my cold bare feet into cracked bricks and crevices of the damp cellar floor, – walking over my grandfather's body, so to speak, into the courtful of houses, and selling them for meat and drink, and clothes to wear.
    • 1978, Michael Shurtleff, Audition: Everything an Actor Needs to Know to Get the Part, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, →ISBN, page 136:
      When there is more than one character in the scene, as is so frequently the case with Shakespeare (where there can be a whole courtful of people for you to deal with), then place the different characters in widely different locations on stage, giving them each a single simple attitude toward you that you are either combatting or using as agreement.
    • 2010, Ruth Padel, Sir Walter Ralegh, Faber & Faber, →ISBN:
      It Includes poems by Elizabeth, who had to keep control of her courtful of poetically competing males.
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