What does course mean?

COURSEnoun

Etymology: course, Fr. cursus, Latin.

1. Race; career.

And some she arms with sinewy force,
And some with swiftness in the course.
Abraham Cowley.

2. Passage from place to place; progress. To this may be referred the course of a river.

And when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais.
Acts xxi. 7.

A light, by which the Argive squadron steers
Their silent course to Ilium’s well known shore.
John Denham.

3. Tilt; act of running in the lists.

But this hot knight was cooled with a fall, which, at the third course, he received of Phalantus.
Philip Sidney.

4. Ground on which a race is run.5. Track or line in which a ship sails, or any motion is performed.6. Sail; means by which the course is performed.

To the courses we have devised studding-sails, sprit-sails, and top-sails,
Walter Raleigh, Essays.

7. Progress from one gradation to another.

If she live long,
And in the end meet the old course of death,
Women will all turn monsters.
William Shakespeare, King Lear.

When the state of the controversy is plainly determined, it must not be altered by another disputant in the course of the diiputation.
Isaac Watts.

8. Order of succession; as, every one in his course.

If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret.
1 Cor. xiv. 27.

9. Stated and orderly method.

The duke cannot deny the course of law.
William Shakespeare.

If God, by his revealed declaration, first gave rule to any man, he, that will claim by that title, must have the same positive grant of God for his succession; for, if it has not directed the course of its descent and conveyance, no body can succeed to this title of the first Ruler.
John Locke.

10. Series of successive and methodical procedure.

The glands did resolve during her course of physick, and she continueth very well to this day.
Richard Wiseman, Surgery.

11.The elements of an art exhibited and explained, in a methodical series. Hence our courses of philosophy, anatomy, chemistry, and mathematicks. Ephraim Chambers12. Conduct; manner of proceeding.

Grittus perceiving the danger he was in, began to doubt with himself what course were best for him to take.
Richard Knolles.

That worthy deputy finding nothing but a common misery, took the best course he possibly could to establish a commonwealth in Ireland.
John Davies, on Ireland.

He placed commissioners there, who governed it only in a course of discretion, part martial, part civil.
John Davies, on Ireland.

Give willingly what I can take by force;
And know, obedience is your safest course.
John Dryden, Aurengz.

But if a right course be taken with children, there will not be so much need of common rewards and punishments.
John Locke.

’Tis time we should decree
What course to take.
Joseph Addison, Cato.

The senate observing how, in all contentions, they were forced to yield to the tribunes and people, thought it their wisest course to give way also to time.
Jonathan Swift.

13. Method of life; train of actions.

A woman of so working a mind, and so vehement spirits, as it was happy she took a good course; for otherwise it would have been terrible.
Philip Sidney.

His addiction was to courses vain;
His companies unletter’d, rude and shallow;
His hours fill’d up with riots, banquets, sports.
William Shakespeare, H. V.

Men will say,
That beauteous Emma vagrant courses took,
Her father’s house and civil life forsook.
Matthew Prior.

14. Natural bent; uncontrolled will.

It is best to leave nature to her course, who is the sovereign physician in most diseases.
William Temple.

So every servant took his course,
And, bad at first, they all grew worse.
Matthew Prior.

15. Catamenia.

The like happens upon the stoppage of women’s courses, which, if not suddenly looked to, sets them undoubtedly into a consumption, dropsy, or some other dangerous disease.
Gideon Harvey, on Consumptions.

16. Orderly structure.

The tongue defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature.
James, iii. 6.

17. [In architecture.]A continued range of stones, level or of the same height, throughout the whole length of the building, and not interrupted by any aperture. John Harris18. Series of consequences.

Sense is of course annex’d to wealth and power;
No muse is proof against a golden show’r.
Samuel Garth.

With a mind unprepossessed by doctors and commentators of any sect, whose reasonings, interpretation and language, which I have been used to, will of course make all chime that way; and make another, and perhaps the genuine meaning of the author, seem harsh, strained, and uncouth to me.
John Locke.

19. Number of dishes set on at once upon the table.

Worthy sir, thou bleed’st:
Thy exercise hath been too violent
For a second course of fight.
William Shakespeare, Coriolanus.

Then with a second course the tables load,
And with full chargers offer to the god.
John Dryden, Æn.

You are not to wash your hands ’till after you have sent up your second course.
Jonathan Swift, Directions to the Cook.

So quick retires each flying course, you’d swear
Sancho’s dread doctor and his wand was there.
Alexander Pope.

20. Regularity; settled rule.

Neither shall I be so far wanting to myself, as not to desire a patent, granted of course to all useful projectors.
Jonathan Swift.

21. Empty form.

Men talk as if they believed in God, but they live as if they thought there was none; their vows and promises are no more than words of course.
Roger L’Estrange, Fab. 47.