courting

Pluralcourtings

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The seeking of another person's romantic affection through attentions and advances, often with marriage in mind.

   Like a slow, deliberate dance where each step tests whether two people fit together.

   Victorian courting followed strict rules about chaperones and supervised visits.

   His clumsy courting somehow won her over in the end.

   Similarcourtship, wooing

   Note

   Usually a mass noun for the practice as a whole, as in the customs of courting. It can also be counted, so one romance is a courting and several are courtings. Courtship is its close synonym. The noun names as an activity what the verb court describes as an action: the visits, attentions and advances made in pursuit of someone's affection.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of court.

   He spent that winter courting the widow who lived across the valley.

   Rival suitors were courting the same heiress all season.

   Note

   The participle carries every transitive sense of court, not only the romantic one. Campaigners are courting voters or allies. A reckless driver is courting disaster, which shows the use that means risking a usually unwelcome consequence. That use almost always takes a grim object, such as danger, ruin or controversy. As a gerund it sits close to the noun for courtship, but the verb always keeps a direct object: courting her, courting trouble.

   By ignoring the warnings, the company was courting disaster.

   Both parties spent the spring courting undecided voters.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2