Course /(kōrs)/

Course

n.
  1. The act of moving from one point to another; progress; passage.
    And when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais.
    — Acts xxi. 7.
  2. The ground or path traversed; track; way.
    The same horse also run the round course at Newmarket.
    — Pennant.
  3. Motion, considered as to its general or resultant direction or to its goal; line progress or advance.
    A light by which the Argive squadron steers Their silent course to Ilium's well known shore.
    — Dennham.
    Westward the course of empire takes its way.
    — Berkeley.
  4. Progress from point to point without change of direction; any part of a progress from one place to another, which is in a straight line, or on one direction; as, a ship in a long voyage makes many courses; a course measured by a surveyor between two stations; also, a progress without interruption or rest; a heat; as, one course of a race.
  5. Motion considered with reference to manner; or derly progress; procedure in a certain line of thought or action; as, the course of an argument.
    The course of true love never did run smooth.
  6. Customary or established sequence of events; recurrence of events according to natural laws.
    By course of nature and of law.
    — Davies.
    Day and night, Seedtime and harvest, heat and hoary frost, Shall hold their course.
  7. Method of procedure; manner or way of conducting; conduct; behavior.
    My lord of York commends the plot and the general course of the action.
    By perseverance in the course prescribed.
    — Wodsworth.
    You hold your course without remorse.
  8. A series of motions or acts arranged in order; a succession of acts or practices connectedly followed; as, a course of medicine; a course of lectures on chemistry.
  9. The succession of one to another in office or duty; order; turn.
    He appointed . . . the courses of the priests
    — 2 Chron. viii. 14.
  10. That part of a meal served at one time, with its accompaniments.
    He [Goldsmith] wore fine clothes, gave dinners of several courses, paid court to venal beauties.
  11. A continuous level range of brick or stones of the same height throughout the face or faces of a building. (Arch.)
  12. The lowest sail on any mast of a square-rigged vessel; as, the fore course, main course, etc. (Naut.)
  13. The menses. (Physiol.)

Phrases & Compounds
In course
in regular succession.
Of course
by consequence; as a matter of course; in regular or natural order.
In the course of
at same time or times during.

Course

v. t.

imp. & p. p. Coursed; p. pr. & vb. n. Coursing

  1. To run, hunt, or chase after; to follow hard upon; to pursue.
    We coursed him at the heels.
  2. To cause to chase after or pursue game; as, to course greyhounds after deer.
  3. To run through or over.
    The bounding steed courses the dusty plain.

Course

v. i.
  1. To run as in a race, or in hunting; to pursue the sport of coursing; as, the sportsmen coursed over the flats of Lancashire.
  2. To move with speed; to race; as, the blood courses through the veins.