Course \Course\ (k?rs), n. [F. cours, course, L. cursus, fr.
currere to run. See Current.]
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.
--Shak.
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. --Milton.
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. --Shak.
By perseverance in the course prescribed.
--Wodsworth.
You hold your course without remorse. --Tennyson.
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.
--Macaulay.
1. (Arch.) A continuous level range of brick or stones of
the same height throughout the face or faces of a
building. --Gwilt.
12. (Naut.) The lowest sail on any mast of a square-rigged
vessel; as, the fore course, main course, etc.
13. pl. (Physiol.) The menses.
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. ``In the
course of human events.'' --T. Jefferson.
Syn: Way; road; route; passage; race; series; succession;
manner; method; mode; career; progress.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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