1A period during which a couple develop a romantic relationship before getting married.

1. 1.1mass noun Behaviour designed to persuade someone to marry or develop a romantic relationship with one.
   求婚，求爱
   his courtship of Emma was idyllically happy

   Example sentencesExamples

   • In one, a man taking a woman out on a first date skips courtship and immediately proposes marriage, the sources said.
   • Men's courtship attempts were described by comparison to just about every other public bid for power men engaged in.
   • Strict rules governed young women's courtship behavior because of the possibility of pregnancy and the importance of a prudent choice.
   • And so the fraternal allegory is ‘forgotten’ through a segue to heterosexual courtship and marriage.
   • Patching together diverse pieces of information, some traits of traditions of courtship and marriage in rural areas can be sketched.
   • Participants who called more different boys or made more total calls to boys during adolescence were considered to have engaged in more early courtship behavior.
   • His cure also establishes a different gender hierarchy, in that it prompts the couple to move from courtship to marriage.
   • The rules of courtship don't apply to you, and so your behavior is confusing and unpredictable.
   • For the mass of the population it did imply a departure from established patterns of marriage and courtship.
   • In this study early courtship behavior, as measured by telephone calling patterns, emerged as a significant variable.
   • Although young people may initiate courtship, marriage is often arranged by the family, with older siblings or extended family members suggesting possible mates.
   • For example, one among the things which distinguishes contemporary Western society from, say, Indian society is the markedly different set of practices followed in courtship and marriage.
   • In The Taming Of The Shrew, courtship and marriage are not so much the result of love but rather an institution of society that people are expected to take part in.
   • An American psychologist once conducted a survey on more than 500 married couples to find out the correlations between the duration of courtship and marriage satisfaction.
   • So, too, men and women seem to be different, at least when it comes to courtship behavior.
   • The movie focuses on the troubled courtship and marriage of Plath and the poet Ted Hughes.
   • Only an initiated man is ready to withstand the dangers of courtship and marriage.
   • Real courtship is about persuasion, not marketing, and the techniques of the laboratory cannot help us translate the motivations of the heart.
   • Within the Zulu Kingdom in the late 1800s, an elaborate system of bead language was used, mainly to communicate messages about courtship in love tokens.
   • The resulting interviews document the women's experiences of wartime deprivation, courtship and marriage, immigration, and adaptation to American life.
   • They hope to make their extraordinary acts of romantic courtship a moment indelibly imprinted on the minds of their lovers.
   • Very nearly the first hundred pages are devoted to her parentage, schooling, courtship and marriage.
   • Enter the romantic plot of heterosexual courtship and marriage, which deploys its forward-looking, more inclusive and reproductive vision via a traffic in women.
   • Love, courtship, marriage, the existence of children, her husband's illness and death, are stated unemotionally.
   • Among many good scenes in the book, Russel's courtship of his college sweetheart, a portrait of a nerd falling in love, is particularly well done.
   • Freund identifies rape as a ‘courtship disorder,’ that is, an anomalous performance of courtship behavior.
   • I believe that the biblical design would be friendship, courtship and then marriage.
   • Instead of organizing around fictional engagements with historically verifiable events, most Irish national tales center around courtship and marriage.
   • Clearly, the old pattern - courtship, followed by marriage, followed by children, and then tranquil bliss - is not working for millions of people.
   • The novel is a modern day romance novel that takes us through courtship, marriage, and its aftermath.

   Synonyms

   wooing, courting, suit, pursuit, attentions, advances, blandishments

   archaic addresses
2. 1.2mass noun The behaviour of male birds and other animals aimed at attracting a mate.
   （雄性鸟类或动物的）求偶（行为）
   Example sentencesExamples

   • Nuptial gifts provided by males during courtship or mating can influence female mating preference.
   • What looks like a brown bear brawl is actually some rather rambunctious courtship behavior, say the authors, whose photographs frequently appear in these pages.
   • He was one of the first to film courtship behavior of Sandhill Cranes, Spruce Grouse, and Greater-Prairie Chickens.
   • But the courtship behaviors and rituals documented are a boon to science.
   • In some species, males have courtship displays which may involve feather fluffing, holding the wings out, shaking them, and raising the tail feathers.
   • Male courtship displays and bright coloration are usually assumed to provide information to females about some aspect of the male's value as a mate.
   • Brown trout embryos were sampled from wild redds after using a VHR camera to observe and record the courtship behavior of adults in selected areas of the River Sella.
   • Apart from the lost paternity, other males may also decrease mating success by disrupted courtship or female avoidance.
   • This may be due to the cheetah's prolonged courtship behavior, which requires extensive territory.
   • During courtship, the male displays for the female by scraping a nest and bowing next to the female while flashing the white on his tail.
   • There was no adult male in sight, because the female assumes all the duties of nesting; the male's reproductive role begins with courtship and ends with mating.
   • Male courtship display includes extending the dorsal fin, pursuing, and eventually biting the female.
   • In arena trials, females that were exercised to exhaustion before courtship mated with smaller males than did control females.
   • During courtship, males sing to defend their territories and attract mates.
   • A number of mutants showing abnormalities in courtship behavior have been identified, many of which show reduced levels of courtship behavior.
   • During the breeding season, groups of males do their courtship display together, puffing out air sacs in their chest and spreading their tails.
   • Scientists think the courtship behavior is designed to synchronize the movements of the two animals so that the male can receive the eggs when the female is ready to deposit them.
   • In courtship, the male attracts the female with an aerial display.
   • Adult fru mutant males were tested for a variety of courtship and noncourtship behaviors.
   • The test was internally corrected for differences in reactivity or spontaneous courtship behavior between mutant and wild-type flies.
3. 1.3mass noun The action of attempting to win a person's favour or support.
   奉承，取悦
   the country's courtship of foreign investors

   该国对外国投资者的取悦。