courted

comparative more courted · superlative most courted

1. Romantically pursued; wooed.

   'I think no one has been more courted than she,' she went on, 'but till quite lately she never cared seriously for anyone. […]'

   1869, Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

   4 more examples

   How little does the situation of a courted, fashionable girl, surrounded by her admirers, and thus at liberty to give herself every impertinent air, which a vain mind,and a selfish, unfeeling heart dictate, resemble that of the unobserved, disregarded being, who night after night, follows some elderly, undistinguished chaperon through the regular round of London amusements, and, seated by her by hour after hour in dull neglect, seems at last to become a part of the bench she rests on, until reduced, perhaps, to be even envious of its insensibility!

   1857, Caroline Lucy Scott, Charlotte Susan M. Bury, A Marriage in High Life, page 122

   Were she, indeed, the daughter of a royal house, as whe has so often imagined in her dreams, she could not possibly be more courted or fêted by the crowd of admirers who surround her, and amidst whom she passes almost for a Corinne, only more beautiful and more mysterious than even Madame de Staël's world-famed heroine.

   1878 September, Duke de Pomar, “A Secret Marriage and its Consequences”, in Tinsley's Magazine, volume 23, page 229

   Hannah's next visit to London was in January of the following year, 1776, and this time she was more courted than ever, on account of the success which had attended the publication of Sir Eldred of the Bower and The Bleeding Rock.

   1911, Annette M. B. Meakin, Hannah More: A Biographical Study, page 45

   Millamant, for her part, is conscious of her powerful position as a courted woman, noting that “One's cruelty is one's power; and when one parts with one's cruelty, one parts with one's power.”

   2021, Edward Behrend-Martínez, A Cultural History of Marriage in the Age of Enlightenment, page 20

2. Enticed by attractions from those who wish one's favor or attention.

   The fame of Nero's five years rests mainly on the favour it obtained from a courted and therefore an indulgent senate.

   1865, Charles Merivale, A History of the Romans Under the Empire- Volume 6, page 290

   3 more examples

   And those circles to which a bon mot was the passport, could scarcely fail to be more agreeable than circles, in which, to be the most courted, it is sufficient to be the first-born.

   1831 January, “A Comparative View of the Social Life of England and France, from the Restoration of Charles the Second to the French Revolution”, in The Edinburgh Review, volume 52, page 376

   At all events, their having discovered the fact was by no means to his advantage; for as my good will was of more value in the family than his, from the circumstances in which I stood in regard to the Duke, my favour was of course more courted, and it often happened that it was courted at his expense.

   1834, George Payne R. James, The Little Ball O'Fire, or John Marston Hall, page 141

   He found himself ever a welcome and a courted guest, and happiness, so long a stranger from his breast, now faded not again.

   1858, Grace Aguilar, The Mother's Recompense, page 473

3. Encouraged; sought-after.

   You can have little idea how far people were carried by such ecclesiastical differences at one time—especially so in remote districts, where quarrels of the sort became a courted diversion from the sluggish monotony of uneventful lives.

   1877, Jessie Margaret Edmondston Saxby, Rock-bound: a Story of the Shetland Isles, page 29

   2 more examples

   Now, disobedience is a self-disseverment from this mystical body—a self-subjection to the ban of the ever-blessed God—a virtual excommunication of our own spirits—a courted anathema— a forfeiture of all privileges and all graces imparted either by union with Christ or by fellowship with our brother believers.

   1833, Johnson Grant, A course of sermons for the year - Volume 1, page 346

   It's a far cry from newscasters having to cut around an intelligent response from a gay man in order to downplay his acceptance of himself—now one of the most courted representations of a real queer person is a bejeweled, Teflon-like resolve to be the funniest, smartest, most cutting, and most beautiful in the room.

   2024, Shayna Maci Warner, The Rainbow Age of Television

1. participlepastsimple past and past participle of court