courses

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of course.

   The university added two new courses to its catalog this fall.

   Over the centuries, the rivers shifted their courses across the plain.

   Note

   The plural carries every countable meaning of course with it: sequences of events, chosen ways of proceeding, ordered series of steps, and the lessons or lectures a student enrolls in. The same spelling is also the verb of running and flowing, so in "blood courses" it is the verb, not a count. A third word hides here too, plural-only and long out of use: the old euphemism for menses.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of course.

   Adrenaline courses through her body just before each race begins.

   Meltwater courses over the rocks as the glacier retreats each summer.

   Note

   A verb of motion, used above all of liquids and especially blood: adrenaline courses through her body. Used without an object, it pairs naturally with through and over. With a direct object it can mean to run over ground, or, in hunting, to chase prey by following its track, or to set another in pursuit of game. The -s marks agreement with he, she or it.

3. 3
   nounobsoleteeuphemisticplural

   A woman's monthly menstrual flow.

   Her courses had not come for two months, so the physician was summoned.

   Nep [catnip] is generally used for women to procure their courses, being taken inwardly or outwardly, either alone or with other convenient herbs in a decoction to bathe them, of sit over the hot fumes thereof.

   1653, Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician Enlarged

   Note

   A plural-only euphemism from the old herbals. Nicholas Culpeper in 1653 recommends catnip for women "to procure their courses" and chervil "to send down women's courses." The verbs tell the story: courses were procured, provoked, sent down, as if a delayed flow needed coaxing. The word is obsolete, so use it only when quoting or evoking early medical writing, and never in the singular.

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