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.
11. (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.
Course, v. t. [imp. & p.
p. Coursed (k?rst)); p. pr. & vb.
n. Coursing.] 1. To run,
hunt, or chase after; to follow hard upon; to pursue.
We coursed him at the heels.
Shak.
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.
Pope.
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. Shak.
