courtful

Noun

courtful (plural courtsful or courtfuls)

1. As much as a court would hold.
   • Worldly little devil, I would stand about, musingly fitting my cold bare feet into cracked bricks and crevices of the damp cellar floor, – walking over my grandfather's body, so to speak, into the courtful of houses, and selling them for meat and drink, and clothes to wear.1892, Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood: Reprinted Pieces, and Other Stories, page 336
   • When there is more than one character in the scene, as is so frequently the case with Shakespeare (where there can be a whole courtful of people for you to deal with), then place the different characters in widely different locations on stage, giving them each a single simple attitude toward you...1978, Michael Shurtleff, Audition: Everything an Actor Needs to Know to Get the Part, Bloomsbury Publishing USA, →ISBN, page 136