Course1, n.
n. [Fr. cours, course, Pr. cors, corsa, It. corso, corsa, Sp. & Pg. curso, Lat. cursus, from currere, cursum, to run.]
Sense 1. The act of moving from one point to another; progress; advance.
When his fair course is not hindered, He makes sweet music with the enameled stones. Shak.
Some she arms with sinewy force, And some with swiftness in the course. Cowley.
Sense 2. The ground or path traversed; track; way; as, a race-course. “The round course at Newmarket.” Pennant.
Sense 3. Motion considered with reference to its direction; line of progress; direction.
Thither his course he bends Through the calm firmament. Milton.
A light by which the Argive squadron steers Their silent course toward Ilium’s well-known shore. Dryden.
Sense 4. Progress from point to point without change of direction; one repetition of a succession of motions in different directions, as one act; as, the course of a ship in one direction, without change in the point of compass; a course measured, as by a surveyor, between two stations; a single course, or running, as on the lists, in tilting, or in public games.
Sense 5. Motion considered with reference to manner; orderly progress; usual, stated, or methodical action; procedure in a certain line of thought or action; regular succession; customary or established sequence.
Day and night, Seed-time and harvest, heat and hoary frost, Shall hold their course. Milton.
The guilt thereof [sin] and punishment to all, By course of nature and of law doth pass. Davies.
Sense 6. Method of procedure; manner or way of conducting; conduct; behavior.
If a right course be taken with children, there will not be so much need of common rewards and punishments. Locke.
Give willingly what I can take by force, And know, obedience is your safest course. Dryden.
Sense 7. A series of motions or acts arranged in order; a succession of acts or practices connectedly followed.
A course of reading, as it is sometimes called, is a course of regimen for dwarfing the mind, like the drugs which dog-breeders give to King Charles spaniels to keep them small. J. H. Burton.
Sense 8. That part of a meal served at one time, with the accompaniments of each.
He [Goldsmith] wore fine clothes, gave dinners of several courses, paid court to venal beauties. Macaulay.
Sense 9. (Arch.) A continued level range of brick or stones of the same height throughout the face or faces of a building. Gwilt.
Sense 10. (Naut.) (a.) The angle which a vessel’s track makes with the meridian. (b.) (pl.) The principal sails of a vessel, as the main and fore sails. Totten.
Sense 11. (pl.) (Physiol.) The menstrual flux; the menses.
In course, in regular succession. — Of course, by consequence; in regular or natural order; in the common manner of proceeding; without special direction or provision. — In the course of, at some time or times during.
Synonyms— Way; road; route; passage; race; series; succession; manner; method; mode.