Meaning of hold court | Babel Free

Definitions

1. To preside in a formal manner over an official assembly of courtiers and others in which entertainment is presented or affairs of state are considered.
2. To convene or preside over a trial or other legal proceeding in a court of law.
3. To serve as the principal discussant or center of attention in an informal gathering of friends, associates, etc.
   broadly, idiomatic

Equivalents

Examples

“[T]his was one of the anterooms off the main throneroom in which the king was accustomed to hold court with his entire retinue.”

“Bean held court in an outhouse, the prisoner seated on a bale of flint hides. Bean was not only judge but prosecutor, as well as counsel for the defense.”

“California's Acting Secretary of State . . . asked the judge in the case not to hold court on Election Day, Nov. 8, and the day before.”

“She was the centre of a very brilliant group, a most beautiful woman holding court, as was only right and proper, among her admirers.”

“Suddenly I heard a familiar laugh, headed down to the bar and found José Andrés holding court with journalists on behalf of a solar-powered cookstove that cheaply boils water for people with little or no access to fuel.”

“With a rumpled, folksy manner, he held court for years in the smoke-filled beer hall of the King Louis Hotel in Calgary.”

CEFR level