hold court

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

2 more languages

Polskibrylowaćkrólować

Svenskahålla hov

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